


Accessed

by not nullbubby (NullBubby)



Series: adventures of dan the hot dog man [1]
Category: Kirby (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 35,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22795978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NullBubby/pseuds/not%20nullbubby
Summary: A young schoolboy is just living his life normally until he gets sucked in by a strange portal one night and finds himself just outside of the Access Ark, where he gets to experience the adventure of a lifetime, meeting a few familiar faces along the way.
Relationships: Bandana Waddle Dee & Original Male Character, Kirby & Original Male Character, Susie | Susanna Patrya Haltmann & Original Male Character
Series: adventures of dan the hot dog man [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1652671
Kudos: 4





	1. One ordinary day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work so uhh... could I get some feedback from ya'll? I don't have a set update schedule for this so I'll just post as I complete this.

Waking up came in the morning and on time for school came easier to Dan than most. He couldn’t exactly understand why it was so difficult for people to get out of bed when they heard their alarm go off. And most of all, he couldn’t understand why people were so grumpy in the morning. It was probably because it just felt so nice to stay in bed. After all, he knew that it was extremely comfortable and relaxing to just lay in bed after waking up, even more so than laying there in the middle of the day. But for him, the relaxation of taking his morning shower was enough to encourage him to get out of bed and start the day, even if it wasn’t as good as staying in bed. And he really didn’t want to be missing school.

After his shower was done and he was all dressed and ready to go, (he couldn’t forget that jacket, it’s freezing outside.) it came time for breakfast. For the past... who knows how long, it’s always been the same breakfast, every day. Two waffles, put 'em in the toaster oven, turn it on, and get out that lunch box while they’re heating up. Sticking along the consistency line comes the same standard lunch consisting of a tangerine and a turkey sandwich to name some of the items. After taking a look at the oven, there was still around 6 minutes left of wait time, so what else better to do than play some games? Grabbing his headphones and Nintendo 3DS, he dashed to his room and got the setup ready as he started the system. Deciding to take some snacks from his desk, he didn’t realize a strange string of characters appearing on both screens as the console turned itself back off. After those goodies, he needed to wash his hands as he didn’t want to be getting his console dirty. Closing the screens without realizing what happened, he took a walk to the bathroom.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! He startled just the slightest hearing that alarm go off as he walked back to his room. Knowing that was for his waffles, Dan thought about that six minutes going by way too quickly. No matter, they could be eaten quickly and he could return to what he was doing. After eating, he washed his hands once more and started towards his 3DS. Taking a look at it after opening it up, he realized that the power light was off.  _ Guess I just missed hitting the power button _ , he thought. Turning it on for real this time, the console booted up and it was time to play some games. And what else to play than his favorites? He got out his game case, took out  _ Kirby: Planet Robobot _ and popped it in the cartridge slot. It turned into one of his favorite games on the console (and possibly all-time) ever since he got it a few days ago. After hearing that familiar banner sound, he opened up the game.

After what felt like 10 minutes, he heard that it was time to go.  _ Man, time really flies in the mornings _ . Pulling up the handle on his red roller backpack, he remembered that one of the wheels fell off of it. Whoops. Pulling out the straps and wearing it like a normal backpack, he headed outside towards the car for yet another day of 8th grade.

* * *

“Any updates yet?” a small, round, machine-like entity with a black screen showing two large eyes on its face asked as it walked through an automatic sliding door.

“It seems that this is just about finished,” replied a similar looking being, turning around in a swivel chair.

“Fantastic. This  _ does _ mean it’s ready for the testing phase, correct?”

“Of course, though I must say that it seems the device only has one use before it overheats. There would be an expected wait time of around a day or so before it would become functional again.” The one in the chair handed the other a small device with several buttons topping it. A large red button was placed above all of them, and an antennae was perched on the top of the device.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you for getting this done.”

“You’re welcome. Tell me if something goes wrong, alright?”

“Will do. See you later.” Controller in hand, it left back through the doors.

* * *

The school day took an agonizingly long time to finish, yet it always seemed like the weeks flew by. Sitting in science class was always the worst, yet people always seemed to hate math class the most. Dan was always a math person himself, and didn’t get why it was so difficult. It was just putting numbers into equations and doing operations with them, how hard was that? Back to class, he heard the teacher rambling on and on about some sort of a project about building a model roller coaster and relating it to what was being learned about physics. He also heard that it could be done in partners or groups, but that didn’t exactly impact him as Dan had always been one of the shy kids and couldn’t work up the courage to ask someone to work with him, so he would be doing it alone, just like every other project and assignment he did. The bell then rang, and everybody got up and headed out. Leaving the classroom, he walked to the last class of the day, English. Dan had been debating whether English or science class was more infuriating, but recent events had led him to believe the latter. He put his stuff down, took a seat, and started re-reading his book for the 50th time, or for him, flipping to random pages and deciding whether or not to take a look at the section traveled to.

When the time came and he was back at the house, he checked to see if there was any homework that needed completing. After getting that straightened out, it was free time. Of course that time was going to be spent on his laptop, so he pulled it out and explored random places on the web. Taking a look at the time, he could see that there was a couple of hours to go until dinner, and he had already run out of things to do.  _ Great _ .

* * *

The robot walked through the door into the testing facilities and walked to the end of the set of rooms. At the final one, it pressed a button next to the hatch and it opened up, where there was nothing but a metal Waddle Dee. A few buttons were pressed on the controller and several lights activated on it. Pointing it at the Waddle Dee, the red button was pressed and a small spark was shot out towards it, then a tiny sphere came out from it and floated just above it. Recording the results in its memory banks, the robot walked back out and towards the lab.

* * *

One more look at the clock and it was finally time to make dinner. Getting out some bread, a sandwich had appeared and a few snacks arrived with it. Completely unknown to him, a green circle with a large H in the middle of it appeared on his laptop for a few seconds, completely covering the screen with a background a different shade of green. It was gone by the time he got back, and he continued surfing the web. A notification appeared on his screen, his brother asking to play some games. He agreed and booted his computer.

Around an hour or so later, it came time that he felt like playing on his 3DS. Saying a “see ya round”, he left the game. Getting it out as he put away the laptop, he prepared his setup and got playing until he felt hungry. As he got up to get something to eat, the same logo that appeared on his laptop appeared on the top screen of the 3DS, again disappearing before he returned. He enjoyed some time playing until he started getting sleepy, so he packed it up, brushed his teeth, and got to bed.

* * *

The hatch opened once more to reveal a bot holding a small handheld cannon. After making the necessary preparations, it pointed the cannon at the test dummy, a small orb strangely floating above it, and pulled the trigger, firing out a large boxing glove towards it. The bullet smashed into its target, sending it flying with so much force that it broke through the wall and flew down towards the ground outside. With nothing more than a shrug, the robot recorded the results and walked out.

* * *

Falling asleep at night came somewhat randomly to Dan. It looked to him like some people could just close their eyes for a few seconds and fall asleep. Some days he could lay on his bed, close his eyes, and doze off in five minutes flat, yet other times, it would be well past midnight and he would be wide awake, tossing and turning around on the sheets. It was extremely cold, so he decided to wear his jacket to bed, along with staying under two layers of blankets. Today was a fairly good day, as he was able to get snoozing fairly quickly. However, unbeknownst to him was a small, strange spherical object of some sort looming over the bed, waiting until the perfect moment to start acting up.

Crickets chirped as the wind howled outside, sounding similar to rain as it blew the nearby plants around. The clock showed the time 11:05 p.m. A car could be heard every few minutes driving by. The sphere was getting bigger by the minute after everyone had fallen asleep and it was getting close to its full size. When it finished, it turned into a swirling vortex, making a large ruckus and waking Dan up. Rubbing his eyes and trying to get a good look at what was making all of the noise, it suddenly started lifting a few things off of the ground and bed and pulling them towards itself. After it claimed his hat, pillow, backpack, and 3DS, he started getting affected by its pull and attempted to resist. It pulled harder, and he grabbed onto the bed frame to try and stay put, but to no avail. It eventually overpowered him and pulled him in. Before he could fully comprehend what happened, a black, transparent orb surrounded him and his possessions and knocked out cold.


	2. Into the vortex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dan gets pooooooooooped inside the portal

_ Ooh... that hurts. _ Dan’s head was throbbing with pain as he got up. The first thing he realized was that he wasn’t in his bed anymore. Rubbing his eyes, he took a better look at his surroundings. Encasing him was a good sized, transparent black orb. Rings traveled from the bottom of it to the top, adjusting their size to match the diameter of the capsule. Looking around a bit inside the orb, he saw a few of his possessions on the floor, namely his hat, pillow, and 3DS, which thankfully still worked after giving it a test. It was impossible not to notice that outside of the container he was in was certainly not his bedroom, instead being a blue, cylindrical, vortex that seemed to be moving past him and his bubble at high speeds, although it could have also been that he was the one rocketing through the portal of some sort. As his head recovered a little from the pain, he tried to remember the last thing that happened before he got here.  _ Let’s see... _ He remembered getting in bed with his jacket on as it was cold out (thankfully it was still with him) and getting under layers of blankets. Putting the pieces together, he could make out that this was a lucid dream, for the first time in his life that he could recall. Great, so just wait it out. Or try to modify it and give yourself a billion dollars, although that could end badly. He made an attempt to move himself back to his bedroom, but to no avail. He tried a few more things and then realized that he wasn’t in a lucid dream and he was stuck here for who knows how long. But hey, at least his 3DS was here.

There was only so much that could be done on his console until everything that could possibly be done on it was done, and he realized that fairly quickly. The one somewhat redeeming factor was that he downloaded some new games on it earlier that day. Or was it yesterday? A week ago? He started to wonder how much time was spent in that orb unconscious, and noticed that the blue environment you were surrounded by was now green. _When did that happen?_ Eventually, he realized that he could check his watch to see what time it was and the date. Unfortunately for him, his watch ran out of battery, so he tried the 3DS. Opening it up revealed that even it was as bewildered as he was on “when” he was at, showing a series of glitchy characters in place of the date and time. _Something’s definitely up. And certainly not just the events leading up to this point._ _What could’ve been changed on this while I didn’t know? Has anything else happened back home? Does a “home” still exist?_ Several more questions challenge his mind as you ponder with them for a good while. After finishing up his thoughts, he decided to do one thing that can pass the time surprisingly well during long car trips. Stare. He stared blankly outside and waited until something, anything happened. And it turned out that it would take a long time for that something to happen.

* * *

It had been a while since he remembered doing anything. A few hours was his best guess as to how long it had been since he got up. Behind him, a mechanical chip had embedded itself within the barrier. It decided that just now was the perfect time to shoot out a tiny needle that stuck into the back of his head. He got a massive headache suddenly, and he held his hands up to his head as the world around him started fading away. One thing that could clearly be seen before he got knocked out though, was a familiar H symbol taking the place of the top screen on the 3DS, startling him as he realized what it was. Just after that, his vision faded out and a thump emerged from his head hitting his pillow.


	3. Peaceful morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gooey goes exploring.

Gooey bounced happily down the path, eating any apples or fruit he came across. Today, he decided, was going to be a great day. Just earlier, he had been heading to his favorite pond to go fishing, but he got lost along the way and happened to stumble upon a path that didn’t seem to lead anywhere. He decided to follow the path as he didn’t know that it even existed until he found himself in a large forest. At this point he decided that it was going to be a great day because he was discovering new places.

After leaving the forest, Gooey found himself in a bustling city filled with buildings, cars, and roads. He didn’t remember this being here. It wasn’t like that mattered to him, as he forgot about that almost immediately and just traveled from one end of it to the other. He decided to find a bite to eat as there weren’t any fruits laying around the streets, and it had been quite a while since he left the woods. Seeing a car driving towards him, he stuck his tongue out and took in the poor Waddle Dee that happened to be driving it as the car rammed into a building and exploded. That filled up his stomach quite a bit, so he continued on his way.

Following the path further, he found himself at the ocean, but something seemed... off about it. He hadn’t been thinking about it all too much, but he was now noticing that everything around him had some mechanical parts attached, including the creatures he saw. That didn’t bother him as he just thought that they all just felt like getting an “upgrade” of sorts all at the same time. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. Maybe he could get an upgrade too. He just had to figure out where to get one. Bouncing up to a Waddle Dee riding a small mech, he was about to ask how he got one of those fancy doohickeys when it shot a rocket at him. _That wasn’t very nice_ , he thought, eating the missile before it reached him. It shot another at him, so he launched the one in his mouth back at the rider, destroying it. He decided that was enough, and trotted on until finding a large, rounded star. Happily, he got on the warp star and flew off into the distance.

Another city surrounded him, only this time it was vibrant and colorful instead of plain like the last one he was in. Music played out of speakers scattered around everywhere. He almost thought that he heard the sound of a vacuum off in the distance, but paid no mind to it. Deciding that this place was too loud for him, he was about to go, but heard a loud _thud_ behind him. He would’ve continued going if it hadn’t started dashing towards him, so he turned around, licked the invader out of its mech, and swallowed it, leaving the armor to fall backwards and assume a sitting position. _The people around here aren’t very friendly anymore_ , he thought, and absentmindedly started hopping to no place in particular.

* * *

He had finally found himself in a large canyon with machine parts scattered about the floor of it. Select pieces were still operating, though barely. Most notably, above him loomed an enormous grey sphere, perhaps larger than Popstar itself. Several platforms stood before it, with warp stars above each of them. Behind him, an invader armor pilot slowly crept up behind him. With a quick movement, a tiny microchip was inserted into the blue blob, but he didn’t feel it. It then ran off, leaving a (more than normally) confused Gooey to stare, drool dripping down his tongue. A few moments later, he heard footsteps approaching. Taking a look at what was making that noise, he saw his bestest and most favorite friend, Kirby, fast approaching. He decided to make a surprise and took one of the warp stars to the next platform as he waited for the puffball to come. Before that could happen, a portal emerged from seemingly nowhere behind him, sucking him in, and shoving out a black orb containing a static figure laying down inside. To the person who just appeared, he asked, “Do you want to be my fr-”. He wasn’t able to finish his message before the vortex sucked him in and closed off, leaving him in an unfamiliar blue world and a sphere fast approaching.


	4. An unfamiliar world

Dan’s orb smashed into the ground, shattering in the process. He felt close to nothing from the impact, as a combination of the pillow and the shell absorbed most of the hit. The force was enough for him to start regaining his senses, but he lay still. A moment later, he could’ve sworn he heard something land next to him. Opening his eyes and lifting his head, several things greeted him with the look of unfamiliarity. He appeared to be in a large valley with machines littered around, some moving, others not. The ground he was on was made of what looked to be pipes, cold and hard against his hands. Above him, was the most gigantic thing he had ever seen in his entire life, and he assumed it would be for the rest of it as well. A grey dome hung in the air above him, but he couldn’t quite get a sense of how far away it was. The bottom of it had an opening and from what could be seen was a rainbow of colors, and not much else. This scene looked all too familiar to him, but he couldn’t get the sense of where it was from. He heard footsteps coming from behind him, and turned his head to see what was definitely a hallucination of some sort. A short pink puff with red shoes, short, stubby “hands”, and two big eyes with a small mouth beneath them. “I must be outta my mind”, he muttered to himself. To his surprise, he received a “ _Hiiiiiii!_ ”, in response. He definitely heard that loud and clear, but to see if the craziest thing could ever happen to him was real, he slowly got up and walked up to the other creature. Slowly, he stuck his hand towards the puffball as it showed a confused look on its face. When he touched it, it was incredibly soft, smooth, and most importantly real. That confirmed it for him. The star warrior himself, Kirby from planet Popstar, stood right in front of him. Dan nearly passed out from this, but stopped himself. Struggling to find the right words to say, he said “H-h-hey there.” Confusion still plastered the puff’s face. Thinking for a moment, he took a candy bar he had out of his pocket and held it in front of the other. Happily, he took it and shoved the whole thing in his mouth, wrapper and all, and swallowed it. He was met with a smile from the other, giving a small bit of hope inside Dan that he could make his way back home.

After recovering from the initial shock (somewhat), he tried to figure out where he even was, but quickly realized that it wouldn’t be easy to communicate between the two of them. But he was determined, seeing as there weren’t exactly any other people around to help him, or really at all. After thinking for a bit, he asked “Can you help me get back where I came from?”, hoping that at least one-way communication was possible. The puff tilted his head and looked confused. Being stumped for a little while, he then asked, “Was that candy bar any good?” hoping to at least see if he could get a response to his questions. This time, he received a smile and a nod, relieving his worries somewhat. So he could at least get answers from yes or no questions it seemed. “Do you know what this place is?” he asked, unsure if he would be able to get an answer from it. The puffball turned his head toward the large sphere and pointed his appendage toward a large H surrounded by a ring on it. He immediately knew what this was, and where the two of them were. Judging by an earlier response, he assumed that it would be a good while until he would be able to get back home, if ever. With a good bit of fright knowing what lay ahead, he asked “You mind if I come with? I got snacks to share.” He received a big smile and the other hopping in place. Delighted with the response, he started picking up his belongings and putting them in his backpack, thankful that his backpack was big enough to hold even his pillow, hanging it over his shoulders after he finished. Right next to him was a small tablet he didn’t notice before, and he decided to grab it just in case it would be useful. After finishing, he said, “Let’s get going,” and motioned toward the 3D warp star that hovered above them. Dan crouched down and jumped as high as he could and narrowly snagged the star as he saw the puffball easily fly up to it. As the star moved farther back towards another platform, they repeated the procedure once more, and landed on the final platform sitting beneath a regular warp star. With both of them giving each other a nod, they hopped on and rocketed towards the Access Ark’s opening as it started closing. As they flew closer, Dan knew that this was an adventure he was sure to never, ever, forget.

* * *

Gooey plopped down on a cushions surface with several pillows on top of it. Looking at his surroundings the first thing he noticed was a big bag of chips on top of a small grey brick, and at that point ignored everything else around him. He bounced towards it and ate the whole bag in one large gulp. Looking for other things to eat, he saw some candy wrappers on the floor, and decided they were good enough. He gathered all of them that he could see and swallowed them all at once. He scanned his surroundings once again, but didn’t see anything else edible, leading him to pay attention to his surroundings. He appeared to be in a room with several pieces of furniture adorning it. The bed he landed on was covered with a large red sheet and stood next to a desk cluttered with way too many things to be able to use it for anything. The ground was littered with quite a few pieces of dirty clothes and trash. A small box was perched atop the desk reading out 2:03, meaning nothing to him. Outside, it was dark and he could hear the sound of crickets chirping. He stood around, not knowing what to do, when the microchip attached to him started making a slight beeping noise as the grey brick unfolded itself to show a black screen. It then showed a picture of an apple, and Gooey immediately noticed and leaped at it. He was about to reach it when the computer showed a blank white screen and left him floating right in front of the screen. He felt a little odd as pieces of him materialized onto the screen of the computer from his own body.

After the process was complete, he noticed a large square showing several lines of text with a bar at the top saying something undistinguishable to him. He tried hopping into it and suddenly, the bar turned from white to blue as he started possessing it. The lines of text disappeared and instead showed nothing as an _Enter your message_ appeared at the bottom of the screen. Giving it a try, he thought of eating a delicious dinner. The screen then showed a picture of a turkey roast with several fruits surrounding it. He sensed this and decided to experiment with it a little while longer. _This is going to be fun_ , he thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dan is supposed to be slightly taller than Kirby. I couldn't find a good place to incorporate this in the story.


	5. Infiltration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newly formed duo enter the Ark.

Riding a warp star was a real scare to Dan. Flying way high above the ground at super speeds didn’t sound pleasing to him, as he’d had a fear of heights for the longest time. Perhaps others would find this like a roller coaster, except without a track of course and no seats to hold onto. And there was no cart. And a whole lot of other differences that he tried to come up with in his mind to try and distract him from the situation unfolding at the moment. As the duo got closer to their destination, Dan thought that he’d heard a faint buzzing sound coming from his backpack. Shrugging it off, he then heard several more in quick succession, and decided to investigate it after they landed. As the warp star continued picking up speed, it rocketed towards the lair as the hatch was close to completely sealing off the opening. Both of them holding on tight, they were sent blasting forwards with one last burst of speed.

After narrowly making it through, they landed on a red carpet inside. Dan stumbled and tripped from the landing, while the puffball effortlessly landed on his feet. Getting up and dusting himself off, he asked for a moment while he checked out what was making the noises in his backpack. Taking it off and rummaging around in it, he pulled out the small tablet he picked up earlier as it once again buzzed. Looking for how to use it, he tried tapping it, and to his surprise, showed a screen with multiple icons on it. He noticed an envelope, a chat bubble, a piece of paper with writing, and a gear, among others. After once again receiving a buzz, he tapped the chat bubble and was greeted with the image of a chicken dinner with apples, bananas, and melons around it. Below that read several lines of text, all but one being what looked to be random key smashes. The lone coherent message simply read, _hello_. Unsure of what it was from, he sent a message in response, albeit struggling a little with the different technology. _hello_ , he replied. Immediately, he received a _hello. my name is gooey. can we be friends_. That was a name he recognized, so he replied with _yes_. Gooey responded, _yay. i hope we can become good friends. friends are nice._ Glad to at least have someone else to talk to, and one that could respond to him, he asked Gooey about his location. _i dont know. i saw a bed and a grey brick and the brick ate me and i saw a box and i went in the box and now im here._ Dan was completely confused about what he was trying to say, and also realized that he needed to get going at some point. An idea popped into his mind and to Kirby, asked, “I was just talking with your friend Gooey with this tablet here. You wanna talk to him?” The puff nodded and Dan handed the tablet to him. The tablet’s screen turned red and gave off a shock that caused the former to pull his hand away while the latter didn’t feel a thing. “Sorry. I didn’t know it would do that. I guess you can’t talk to him. At least for now.” Kirby clutched his hand tightly and looked down at the floor. Saying goodbye to Gooey, he then said, “We should get going now, right?” With a nod, they started walking down the steps that lay in front of them.

After going down a few steps, they entered a hall with several columns on both sides of the path. After passing a couple of them, they saw a painting on the wall with a portrait of a man sitting in a golden chair. He had purple hair and held both hands in his lap. They stopped to look for a moment before seeing a small energy bullet whisk past them, turning into a miniature explosion shortly after. Looking towards its source, they noticed a robot relatively Kirby’s size holding a blaster walking towards them. Kirby ran up to it and inhaled it just after noticing it. After swallowing it, he gained the Spark ability, which Dan recognized from the spiky hat planted on the other’s head. As he zapped a floating mage, they dashed ahead. Several more steps stood in front of them as well as another mage. Quickly dispersing them, the puff led the way as Dan dashed to keep up. More paintings of the same man appeared on the wall as well as two statues of him standing next to a doorway with three stars topping it. “President Haltmann”, Dan muttered to himself as they entered the door. The puff immediately ran forwards, shocking several bombers in his path as well as a Parasol Waddle Doo when they reached a small gap in the floor. A platform was placed in the middle of it to allow access to the other side of the pit. As two bombers fell down it, Dan thought of how he should try and get past. Realizing a solution, he asked the puffball, “Can you give me a lift?”. He inflated himself and hovered at the end of the platform they were standing on, signifying a yes. Jumping up and grabbing onto his legs, they landed on the other side of the pit where several bombers were lined up, waiting to drop down on the two of them. Kirby ran past them all as they fell down and blew themselves up. Seeing a safe passage through, Dan followed. Another ray gun wielding enemy was defeated and they entered the door ahead.

After walking forward a bit, they encountered a familiar face. Bandana Waddle Dee was perched atop a step a little ways back and tossed a cherry contained in a clear star at the puffball. Noticing Dan there however, he looked confused. The duo simply waved and continued on their way. A couple of steps up and they saw two differently colored stars on stands floating above them, one purple with a ninja star image on it and the other brown with a stone. The puffball jumped at the brown star and gained several rocks on his head, replacing his old hat. As they continued forward, a robot spawned in front of them and the puff drew a fighting stance while Dan backed up and ran to the stairs. After hearing a “Hey!” from behind him, he walked towards Bandana Dee, who was waving at him. 

“Who are you? I haven’t seen you around before,” Bandana Dee asked.

“My names Daniel, but I go by Dan. I’m not entirely sure how I got here myself, but I woke up on a platform outside of this giant dome we’re in,” he replied.

Bandana Dee, thought for a little. “Alright.” After a short pause, he said, “Oh! I guess I can introduce myself as well! My nam-”

“Bandana Dee, yes, and you’ve been helping Kirby over there by giving him those assist stars,” Dan finished.

“Hey how did you know that?” Bandana Dee questioned.

“Uh...” he trailed off. “That’s a story for another time.” Taking a look at the ongoing duel, the robot then broke down and pushed a button. Shortly after, it exploded. “I think I gotta go now. Now that I think about it, could you join us in traveling through this place?”

“Sorry, I can’t. It would be best for me to give support in the form of those stars. But hey, I have a hunch we’ll meet up again at some point,” Bandana Dee responded.

“Yeah, I think so too. I’m gonna get going now. See ya later!” he called out as he ran to join his friend.

“Bye! And good luck on your journey!” he called out. As he watched them jump onto a 3D warp star, he was left with several questions.

Going down a couple more steps, they noticed some food floating above them. “Oh boy, food! I was starting t-” he started, but stopped when he saw the puff jump up and swallow all of it. After being stunned for a bit, he asked, “You mind saving some for me next time?” The puff nodded in agreement, and they went forwards to find an orange block in the floor. The puff jumped above it and turned into a stone, smashing the block and causing another green star to fall as well as a treasure chest. While he was occupied opening the chest, Dan picked up the star and tossed it to him. When he approached, he saw a floating cube with several wires running across it. The puff jumped up and grabbed what Dan recognized as a code cube, and they continued through a door. When they emerged, several fans started pushing them towards a wooden box with a ninja jumping on top of it. The puff smashed both with a stone transformation, and then pulled out a stone fist and uppercutted two ray gun enemies ahead. One more uppercut took out a Sir Kibble at the top of three steps, and they continued. With one big jump, they reached a 3D warp star and a Scarfy was immediately dealt a beating by a stone fist. They passed bombs being thrown at them as they went down and up a couple steps and another ray gun enemy was defeated. Another leap and they appeared on a 3D warp star, and the puff ran towards a box, defeating two more Scarfies in the process. Inside the box was a lollipop with a star on it, and the puff picked it up. He started glowing and flashing rainbow, and he dashed ahead. Dan hopped on top of him, albeit with a little difficulty because of the stones, and they continued. Several enemies were defeated as they reached a door leading to more steps. A snowman and a mage were defeated, and they ran into another large robot, defeating it instantly. Soon after, their invincibility ended and they returned to normal. A 3D warp star led them to three handles in the ceiling with blue buttons holding them in place. While the puff experimented with what they did, Dan took the sweets that they missed just earlier and put them in his backpack. When he returned, all three handles were pulled and the puff was smashing gunners protecting a chest. After he returned through a tube, they went ahead and through a door.

As they emerged, a star bounced out of the puff again as he inhaled a bow wielding enemy in front of them, giving him one of his own and the Archer ability. Through a tube, then another, they crossed over pits, with Dan getting a lift as he would never have been able to clear them. The two of them then found themselves in a maze of tubes. After going through a few of them, a bomb block was smashed, uncovering a tube below them which led to a shiny orange sticker. Emerging from the final pipe, Dan got a lift out of the pit they were in and went through a doorway. 

Once again, when entering, a star bounced out of the puff as he ran forwards and inhaled what Dan thought was a Simirror, but he couldn’t get a good look at it before it was absorbed and turned into the Mirror ability. This time, he gained a white and blue jester’s hat and a staff, also allowing him to slide along the ground instead of having to run. They continued forwards until they reached one more robot trying to attack them, which Dan now recognized as a Security Force. As the puff duplicated himself and summoned a shield to reflect the missiles fired at him, it was quickly dispatched, leaving behind a 3D warp star that led them to a large golden door. Before they entered, Dan snagged a floating energy drink, and then noticed a button hidden in the floor. Alerting the puff of it, it destroyed several metal blocks above them, dropping a chest containing one final code cube. After that, they entered the goal gate.

Immediately after entering, they both landed in a giant cannon. Dan looked around and noticed several clouds ahead of them, with flying enemies in between each pair. Two sets of arrows pointed towards the farthest cloud, and a small screen above the cannon showed four stars with an older version of Kirby on it. Realizing this was the goal game, he tried to brace for what was going to happen. Clutching the puff closely, the cannon tilted forwards, and blasted them away, smashing multiple enemies, Dan somehow managing to restrain from screaming. After headbutting on the farthest cloud, they looked up to see a U.F.O. drop several stars onto them as well as a tomato with a large M on it and a sticker. After a short dance by the puffball, they were teleported away, but not before a buzz from Dan’s tablet startled him.

* * *

Gooey was most certainly having a lot of fun tinkering with whatever this thing was that allowed him to talk to his newest friend, Dan. He needed to ask him a few questions, but decided that he could wait. He had noticed several other large rectangles floating about, each having a different picture shown on them. He decided to take a break from talking as he wasn’t getting any responses and hopped towards the first window he saw, which showed nothing but a few lines of text. After entering it, he attempted to read the lines of text, but wasn’t able to figure out what they meant. Maybe he could ask Dan about it later. He tried to remember what was said as he jumped out of it. Repeating it several times in his mind, he traveled to the next window he saw.

He found himself in front of a box showing several pictures of folders, pieces of paper, and photos of flowers among other things, already forgetting the text from earlier. He decided to hop in, and thought about food again. This time, he imagined a nice, big cake with an energy drink on the side. A flower picture icon appeared next to the other folders and whatnot. Not knowing what just happened, he inspected the icon that just appeared to find the cake and drink he imagined. Deciding that this could pass the time quite well, he imagined other things that satisfied him. He couldn’t wait to find out what else he could play with in this place.


	6. Progression

The duo found themselves in a laboratory of sorts with test tubes containing several things that neither of them could recognize. Enormous outlets lined the walls, and some of them had giant plugs inserted. As for the road in front of them, they stood on a glowing floor with pipes appearing in place of it every so often. Small rectangular boxes floated in front of them, sitting idly for the time being. As they ran forwards, the puff nearly ran into a laser emitted from one of them when they approached. With a few jumps, they continued until they noticed several gears appear and turn around them, turning a large metal wall approaching from behind them. The puff ran ahead a little and discarded his jester’s hat for a band shooting toxic goop slightly above his head. Dodging more lasers as Sleep copy essences lying about, all of the enemies that stood in their path were defeated until they reached a bomb block concealing a door, which they immediately entered.

A ladder lay ahead of them which led to a lift resting on a rail. After the two jumped in, they rode past a shield with shocking orbs surrounding it and jumped out onto a platform. After repeating the process with another lift and a couple more barriers, they jumped out onto a climbable wall, though with a lift for Dan. They walked forwards a little and dropped down a platform onto another lift, which promptly started moving. It led them to a sticker, then past several more barriers, and then crashed onto a platform with a door.

The next room contained a button directly in front of them, which dropped a small, Game Boy looking device, except with an antenna on top. Dan was a little excited, and asked “You mind if I handle this?” With a nod of confirmation, he picked it up and noticed a robot that looked like Kirby on a separate platform near them activate and begin mimicking his movements. Dan took the lead and commanded the robot to hit several buttons that allowed them to get across pits of spikes as well as defeat a few enemies with some slide kicks, a skill he picked up by watching the puff perform the move. After crossing a few bottomless pits, they reached Bandana Dee again, who threw an assist star at the puff. Dan gave his friend the controller and waved to Bandana Dee.

“Hey, uh, short time, no see, I guess,” Dan called.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Bandana Dee replied.

“So I expect that I’ll be waiting here for a bit while he,” he pointed a finger at Kirby, “goes and fights whatever enemy lays ahead. So I guess that means we have a little time to chat?” Dan said.

“Seems that way. So...” Bandana Dee started. They stood in silence for a bit until he asked, “You know anything about what happened before you got here?"

“Well, I can’t remember much but I do reme-” He was cut off by a buzz from his backpack. “Oh! That reminds me! You know Kirby’s friend Gooey?”

“I’ve heard the name before, but I don’t think I’ve met him. Why do you ask?” Bandana Dee answered.

“Well apparently this tablet thingy,” he pulled it out, “is able to communicate with him. I honestly have no idea how or why, but it works,” Dan explained.

“That’s nice. At least there’s someone else you can talk to in this place. And at any time too.” An explosion was heard from the battlefield in front of them. “It looks like Kirby’s done over there,” Bandana Dee said.

“Yup. Looks like I’ll get going now. See ya later!” he called out as he ran to catch up.

“You too! It was nice seeing you again!” Bandana Dee made a mental note to get right to his questions next time they met.

A 3D warpstar much too high for either of them to reach with a standard jump stood above them, so the puff inflated himself, grabbed Dan, and set them both on the star. When they landed, a glob of poison was sent out to break a crate, revealing a door with a red star at the top of it. They both entered, and were met with a slug looking creature that was taken out. Past that was a large pit with a button at the bottom and a scarfy floating above it. Globs were sent at both of them and a door opened in front of them. Dan decided to play it safe and get a lift instead of trying to jump the gaps that were in front of them. The process was repeated a few more times with a moving Gordo and one encased in water. They were greeted with a chest holding a code cube for passing the trials and they exited the room. A door was just ahead, being guarded by a Dekabu, which was poisoned quickly. A pipe lay through the doorway, blocked off by a box and a knight patrolling it. The pipe led them to a battery on top of a digital floor. The panels on the floor repeatedly showed a skull, changing in a pattern to make it look like it was moving towards them. They were swiftly dodged and a 3D warp star appeared to transport them. A container holding a Gordo was in front of them, and inserting the battery into the nearby socket replaced it with a cake. After collecting it, they went through a tube leading to another panel evading section. The container for that section gave an energy drink, and one final section which involved more skillful sidestepping gave a code cube. The puff collected it and they entered the door ahead.

A wall similar to the one they had encountered earlier approached and they ran towards a 3D warp star ahead, pressing any button they came across. Several opened gates greeted them with a sticker, point stars, and a code cube, until they reached the giant golden door that led them to the cannon blast again. This time, Dan could control himself more as they once again blasted to the farthest cloud, rewarding them once again with a maxim tomato, point stars, and a sticker. Now remembering the notification on the tablet from earlier, he pulled out his tablet and checked what it was as he realized there was a bit of a break until they continued onwards.

* * *

Making food appear was getting a little boring for Gooey, so he decided to look for something else to entertain him. There were several different windows scattered about, but decided to inspect one that showed a picture of an envelope. Hopping in, the envelope showed a progress bar beneath it. After finishing, he tried to figure out what he could do with this window. Once again, he thought about food, this time simply an energy drink. A rectangle appeared on the screen showing a picture of an energy drink as well as a blank typing space above it. Being the strange minded blue blob he was, he imagined several other things such as a screwdriver, a stone, and a blanket as they appeared as images beneath the energy drink. Eventually, his thoughts came to the word ‘treats’ as it appeared in the typing space and the box closed itself. Disappointed, he made another one appear, repeating the process with several other strange objects until he decided to just return to the chat box once again to see if Dan was around to talk to him. He hoped that he was.


	7. Time to rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two take some time to rest for the journey ahead.

With all of the adventuring that the two of them had been doing, they had started to get tired. Dan suggested they settle down for a bit and get some rest, and Kirby nodded in agreement. They started off by looking for a suitable location, which wasn’t easy considering where they were. After a while, they decided on a small room with a conveniently placed old and dusty mattress laying on the floor. Dan set down his belongings as the puff walked up to his backpack and pointed at it. Dan opened the backpack and the food inside was immediately snatched out. “Hey wait! Let me have some too!” he called after him but before he knew it, all of the food they had was devoured. With a sigh, he took out his tablet to see what was happening. This time, notifications appeared on more than just the chat room, so he decided to check them out. His first stop was in the messages area, where he was greeted with several images of various foods and Gooey asking multiple times if he was there. _ok im back_ he typed in response. The next stop was what he assumed was the files area, and was shown a single folder named ‘food’. He opened it up and several pictures of food greeted him again, and he sighed. The last stop was at an icon showing an envelope, which took a while to start up. After loading, a single message appeared in the inbox with the name ‘treats’. As he opened it up, a picture of an energy drink, screwdriver, rock, and blanket appeared. Attempting to press the button to return to the home menu, he accidentally pressed a button of a half shaded circle next to it. The tablet then started materializing the attachments of the message, giving him a surprise. After it finished, he called over his friend and they took a look at what was there. Learning from a little earlier, Dan took the energy drink first and then gave the blanket and his own pillow to his friend. He ran over to the mattress and tossed the bunched up blanket on top of it and sat down. Now that he had time, Dan could finally return to the messages and respond to the notification that appeared on it. _hello_ , replied Gooey. _today i learned i can make food appear_ , he said. _well thats great today i learned i can make the food you make real_ , he replied. _when i meet you i want to make and eat a cake with you every day because youre a good friend_.

After a little more conversation about what had recently happened, Dan decided to get to bed. Kirby was already resting on the mattress, but wasn’t using the sheet, so he assumed that he was still awake. Before putting his tablet away, he had tested out the other features of it and saw a notepad. He decided to make a sort of journal entry to keep track of what was happening and to show what happened if he ever made it back home. There was also a camera feature which he could use to prove what had happened, although he was now considering if he should keep it a secret just in case others start bothering him about it. He still was going to take a picture, and decided the first one would be his friend next to the sheet. Aiming the camera, he snapped a photo as the puffball opened his eyes a little, then immediately closed them again after he sat down with him. He was about to go to bed, so he decided to make his first entry in the log.

* * *

_Day of arrival_

_Empty room_

_Today has become much, much more than a normal day for me. I started off just going to bed, and the next thing I knew, I was laying on a platform outside of this giant metal sphere known as the Access Ark. And I also happened to get here just as Kirby was making his way inside too! I decided to tag along with him seeing as there’s not really anything else I could do around here. Shortly after meeting and packing up my stuff, I found this tablet here with a whole lot of functions like a messaging system and a place to view files and whatnot. And apparently this can connect to Gooey, seeing as he’s already sent me more than enough pictures of food in multiple ways. In what I assume to be some sort of an email, I was able to create the attachments that were sent to me in a message from Gooey, but I don’t see that working out too well judging by the fact that his mind resides in his own special world and he can’t think straight. Back to what happened earlier, I rode my first warp star today, which was pretty scary for me. After that was a whole lot of running and jumping and dodging through the enemies and lasers that stood in the path leading forwards. And while Kirby was fighting some tougher enemies, I got to talk to Bandana Dee, which was cool, I guess? Anyways, after getting through the first area, we were dropped in a cannon and shot really far out onto a distant cloud. And then again after going through the second area, which was filled with lasers. And after that, we finally decided to rest for now, seeing as it looks to be getting late. As of the time of writing, I’m sitting on an old mattress in a room with nothing but us and our stuff, going to get a good night’s sleep. Kirby’s laying down next to me but he’s not even using the blanket. Eventually, I’ll get to using this thing to its full potential by taking a look at what else it can do. One thing I guarantee I’ll keep doing is keeping a log on this thing so that I can keep track of what’s happening. I’ve figured out how to keep track of how long I’ve been here, but not the exact date, so that’s the best I can do on dating these. I’ll also be taking pictures, for some memories if I make it out of here. I’m gonna end this here because Kirby is tugging at my arm and it looks like he wants me to keep him warm. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the two of us tomorrow!_

_~Dan_

* * *

Dan woke up in bed, with the familiar sight of his own pillows, sheets, and blankets. He tried getting up to look at the clock on his desk, but his body wouldn’t budge. He couldn’t even move his head, so he was down to moving his eyes. In front of him was definitely his room, but he was now realizing that his bed didn’t feel right. And the pillow he was holding was super soft, much more than usual. Taking another look around, he noticed that his chair had disappeared, despite just noticing it a second ago. Shortly after, his computer vanished as well. One by one, many of his belongings started leaving, and he tried as hard as he could to get himself moving. Finally he succeeded, but wasn’t met with what he expected. Around him was a small metal room with nothing but his backpack on the floor. He was on an old mattress and was using one blanket. The “pillow” he was holding was actually a pink sphere with stubby arms and big feet, and he then recalled the events leading up to the moment. After looking around a bit more, he heard soft sounds coming from the other. Taking a look back, Kirby was now staring at him with his half open eyes. Dan whispered, “Sorry to wake you. There’s nothing wrong, go back to bed.” He immediately listened and lay back down, but not before holding tightly onto his friend. Dan smiled slightly, and felt around for his tablet. After finding it, he turned it on to look at what day it was. It showed that a day had passed since his arrival, and after seeing this, he laid back down to get some sleep himself. This time, he held the puff in a tight hug and they both fell back asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doing these journal entries so that I can show Dan's perspective on the situation at hand. I'll try to show his thoughts and feelings through these.


	8. Digitalized

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirby and Dan go through this digital world place thingy.

Dan was the first to wake up, so he did his best to quietly get up out of bed, which wasn’t easy considering they were still tight in a hug. By the time he finally got loose, the puffball woke up as well. Rubbing his eyes gently, Dan gently laid him back down and got to putting his stuff away. When he finished, he got a little bored, so he decided to check if Gooey had done anything. Nothing was shown, so he put the tablet back into his backpack and fished around to see what else he happened to have in there. Fishing around for a bit, he pulled out his 3DS, which had managed to stay with him through his entire journey. He powered it on to see that _Kirby: Planet Robobot_ was still inserted into the cartridge slot. Taking another look at the puff laying in front of him, he debated whether or not he should show him one of several games based off of him. After a little while, he just settled on a no and played some of the other games installed on it.

A good while had passed until he finally noticed some movement in his friend on the mattress. Dan walked over and said, “Rise and shine. This day isn’t gonna last forever, so it’s best we get going soon.” While Kirby started picking up what he could, Dan messaged Gooey asking him if he could send some more food over through the mail application. The blanket was too big to be able to fit, so they had to leave it behind. They decided to rest for a little more before continuing on, and they walked out when they were finished, heading farther into the Access Ark.

The two of them found themselves in another lab, similar looking to the one they had found the day prior. The puff inhaled a gunner to get the spark ability and destroyed a large crate at the end of the room. Underneath it lay a robobot armor, sitting down and waiting for a commander. Kirby jumped in and it quickly turned into his color scheme as an aviator hat appeared on his head. He gave a wave to Dan and he jumped in on the side of the puff. As the armor started turning a giant screw in the floor, turning the ground with it, Dan laid back and relaxed, seeing as there wasn’t much he could do. He decided to tinker around with his tablet while waiting for something to happen. Not much was left untouched on the device, so he just watched what was going on around while he waited until the armor had to be abandoned.

At some point, the armor gained the Bomb ability and started tossing out walking explosives from it’s “mouth”. They were used later to hit a switch opening up a gate leading to a code cube. Shortly after, it was discarded for the Ice ability, allowing it to freeze anything in its path and bring a snowman head to its rightful body.

A little while later, they reached a catapult carrying a large Gordo for ammo. Using a giant sword, the chain holding it back was cut, sending it flying and smashing a few blocks in the ground. In the hole were several chests, one of them containing an energy drink, which Dan stored in his pack. Up a ladder was a sticker, and one more led them to the goal gate. Setting down the robobot nearby, Kirby jumped out and ran towards it, Dan following close behind, leading them to another cannon shot.

* * *

Gooey had already used up every different program at his disposal. He had tried to reuse some of the ones from earlier, but didn’t receive the pleasure of using them for the first time. Dan had told him to send more food over through the mail window, so he decided to head over there. As he entered, he started dreaming of all of the food he was going to eat whenever he got out of this place, but soon got lost in thought and sent it early. When he came back to his senses, he decided that what was sent should be enough and traveled back to the messages to talk to Dan again.

* * *

Dan and Kirby found themselves at the bottom of a large stairwell, a pill shaped enemy standing a short ways up. It was quickly inhaled and transformed into the Doctor ability, providing a lab coat, glasses, and headlamp. A Rocky attempted to smash into them while sliding down the stairs but was interrupted by several pills thrown its way. At the top of the stairs was a room with a Security Force at rest until they entered the room. After a short battle with Dan watching from a safe distance outside, it exploded, leaving behind a large square with a screen that he couldn’t make out from where he was standing. Upon closer inspection, it showed a green background with a few effects plastered on it. Kirby was the first to jump into it, and with a little hesitation and a good bit of effort, Dan followed, getting sucked inside the portal.

The two landed on a fairly smooth surface, and took a look around as they got up. Everything around them was completely digital, from the ground, to the large spherical shapes orbiting far away from them to even the sky. After getting a good glimpse at their surroundings, they walked forwards and almost didn’t notice an outline of a set of blocks forming beside them. Dan had just moved out of the way when it materialized and shot out a projection of itself towards them, narrowly missing sending one of them flying. He took a look of shock on his face, and was then pushed out of the way by his partner as a bullet hit the wall next to him. The gunner was quickly turned into the Spark ability and the two moved on. They walked forwards a little until they noticed the outline forming near them. Learning from last time, they dodged out of the way as it projected itself forwards, and they used the newly formed blocks as stairs to continue. Kirby went ahead to activate all of the blocks that tried to launch them and defeat all of the enemies, and Dan followed on the path they created. At one point a platform lay in the ground which the puff dropped down under, and a block formed above it, preventing Dan from following. He did his best to make his way forwards until they met up, and was immediately greeted with a flame spewing dragon-like creature that slowly approached. He backed up a little, and it was then shocked by a plasma needle shot towards it. Dan gave a wave to his friend and they continued onwards through a door.

In the next area, they were required to let several block platforms appear to give them a safe path across the bottomless pit beneath them. They dodged an explosion from behind them and a gunner trying to shoot them until they reached a different robot that flew around with a juet on its back. The Spark ability was dropped in favor of the Jet ability from the flying robot, allowing Kirby to jet forwards with his own. He motioned for Dan to hop on, and the two of them blasted forwards, past a door, and into a red star door. Just in front of them was a battery, and with Dan still getting a lift, the puff grabbed it as a block tried smashing into them. He quickly jumped onto the next platform and another tried the same thing. The process was repeated several times, up a few layers of blocks, until they reached a buzzsaw that lay on the ground with a battery slot sitting next to it. The battery was inserted and caused the saw to start turning and propel itself along the ground, splitting the wall in front of them and making way for a code cube beneath a platform, and a door. Beyond the door, two blocks formed next to them, and they were dropped down onto another platform. Dan, realizing that he wasn’t quite as mobile as his friend was, decided to hop back on to keep up with the blocks forming around them. Down two layers of dodging was a code cube, which was quickly reached before becoming inaccessible by a block. One more layer and they reached a door, where Bandana Dee was waiting for them. After tossing out an assist star, he called out to Dan and watched him approach.

“I didn’t expect to be seeing you here,” said Dan.

“But I expected you to come here. Nice seeing you again,” said Bandana Dee.

“So what’s up? There’s nothing that I feel I need to tell you this time,” Dan said.

“I’ve had a few questions on my mind that I’d like to ask you. If that’s fine by you of course,” Bandana Dee responded.  
“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” he said.

“First off, do you know how you got here? You were cut off by that tablet last time we met,” he questioned.

“I don’t really know, but here’s what I remember from before. I remember going through one of my days, going to school, eating dinner, that sorta stuff. When it came time to, I went to bed, and that’s the last thing I remember before finding myself here,” he explained.

“I see...”

“Also, I have a question for you. Do you have any idea where we are right now?” Dan asked.

“No idea. But I can just feel that the place that you guys are headed isn’t too much farther from here,” he replied.

“Oh. Well thanks anyways.” He walked over towards the ladder Kirby went down. “I think I should go check his progress now.”

“These conversations are always so short. Anyways, see you later,” Bandana Dee said.

“Yeah, you too. Bye!”

Bandana Dee gave him a wave as he climbed down the ladder. At least he got his top priority question answered. Somewhat, at least.

Down the ladder were two enemies that tried hitting him with pills and sparks, and past that were copy essences of cutter and beam. Dan could see that Kirby was waiting for him up ahead, and after meeting up, they continued. Blocks created a way forwards, and just before a door, Dan noticed that several more were appearing above them. After pointing it out, the puff gave him a lift up to them, which led them to a 3D warp star and a Wheel copy essence. Before Dan could get off as he was unsure of whether or not the wheel transformation would work with him on, he morphed into it along with the puffball and they rocketed down towards the enemies from earlier. Past them was a bomb block that opened up a door, which led to another block evading segment. The Wheel ability was traded for the Spark ability, just after entering, and they continued. Dan needed to get a lift for the entire way through as they needed to travel up to make progress. Near the top, a short corridor led to a code cube that was shortly sealed off by blocks after traveling through. Immediately after, they reached a 3D warp star, leading them to a floating sticker and the goal gate for yet another cannon blast.

Two gunners and a clown, of all things, blocked the way forwards. A large plasma ball quickly took care of them, and a 3D warp star lay ahead. Just as they landed, an invader armor flew in from above and dropped next to them. Dan ran back a little as the robot was swiftly defeated, leaving it for them to use. A few platforms granted them access above where the Cutter ability was obtained, and where Bandana Dee was waiting once more. The two of them gave a wave as he tossed an assist star at them, then they jumped into a portal. They landed just in front of a weakened Holo Defense API that summoned two Holo-Doomers to fight them. A few blades made quick work of them, and they went through another portal. A couple platforms made way to a massive metal crate that the robobot armor picked up with ease. It was soon set down and used to reach some food and a sticker, then left behind as they made their way past the enemies that tried blocking their way. At the top of a ledge was a portal that led to another Defense API that summoned an Ice Dragon that once again was made quick work of. It left behind a portal. The jets of the armor allowed it to boost over all of the pits until they reached a Parasol Waddle Dee. Trading out Cutter for Parasol, they were now given almost limitless flight capabilities. Up above was a platform housing a Walky that attempted attacking them. Parasol was then lost for Mike, which gave the armor giant speakers for arms. Back down below, a giant crate was used to smash some blocks in the floor, showing food and a code cube beneath them. A Defense API that summoned a Holo-Kracko was located past another portal. Several sound waves were shot towards it and it fell. Up ahead, a crate was placed in a pit that prevented a treasure chest and drink from falling into the void. After receiving a code cube, they moved forwards to find a Capsule J3 hovering about. Scanning it, the armor transformed into a plane and they flew forwards.

Enemies of all sorts flew at them or shot at them, but they all were sent a flurry of bullets directed towards them as they traveled. Mid bosses were next up to halt their progress, but they didn’t fare any better than those that stood before them. Switches along the path opened up gates that led to one final code cube before performing some tight maneuvers to avoid blocks smashing into them. Past all of those, the jet blasted forwards with a burst of speed, sending it crashing into the ground in front of them. A cannon hovered above them, and they both hopped in sending them flying around for a bit before hitting a platform above. Dan fell to the ground feeling somewhat nauseous from the spinning as he was helped back to his feet by Kirby. A portal then teleported them to several platforms with enemies standing on each of them. The Jet ability was received as a Capsule J3 was inhaled, and all of the foes ahead were dealt a powerful headbutt with the help of the thrusters. Bandana Dee was waiting for them ahead, and after an assist star was tossed at them, Dan once again ran up to him.

“Hey!” Dan called, waving as he ran up.

“Looks like we’re back together again,” Bandana Dee responded.

“Anything on your mind this time?” asked Dan.

“Actually, no.” He let out a sigh. “I was thinking we could just relax for just a bit this time.”

“Fine by me,” he responded, sitting down next to him.

The two of them watched as the puffball blasted towards the Security Force several times. It was taking quite the beating, but it didn’t give up easily. At one point, he burst forwards only to barely miss his target and stumble towards it. Seeing an opportunity, it then spun its arms rapidly and dashed towards him, making him lose the jet ability and fly backwards. The two gasped in horror as he was then struck several times, tossed around the arena until Bandana Dee took out his trusty spear and dealt the finishing blow to the robot. They both rushed over to their wounded friend, doing their best to see the damage without moving him.

After a quick examination, Bandana Dee said, “We have to get him somewhere safe before he gets hurt any more.” With a quick nod, Dan did his best to lift him up onto his back with Bandana Dee helping. “Can you help me get him out of here?” Dan asked with a little difficulty, struggling to hold up the weight on his back. Bandana Dee agreed that neither of them would be able to defend themselves very well and decided to tag along. With some effort, the three of them took a 3D warp star to a robobot armor sitting in front of them.

“Will this even work with us? I’ve only seen it be used with Kirby,” Dan said.

“We’ll only know if we try,” Bandana Dee replied.

Dan hopped in, but nothing happened. Bandana Dee tried next, and the armor transformed to resemble Kirby’s variant, except with an orange color scheme. After getting used to the controls, they started off again towards any safe place they could find. A giant screw in the floor dropped them down to some copy essences, which didn’t work seeing as Bandana Dee didn’t have the copy power. They rushed forwards past a few gunners until a giant metal disc floated near them, assembling into an enormous robot. It lifted its hand up for a smashing attack, which was easily dodged, several punches were sent to the arm, revealing a giant screw underneath. Turning it removed the entire arm off of the robot, which then tried doing the same thing with its other hand. Removing this one revealed a screw on top of the robot’s head. With one large leap, they jumped onto it and started spinning it as it fired several missiles towards them as a last ditch effort to save itself. The missiles were closing in on them rapidly until the screw was finally removed, destroying the robot and dropping the goal gate down on the ground. Dan fell out as they touched the ground, but was picked up as the robobot ran by him. Without getting the time to put him back in the seat, they ran towards the goal gate for one last cannon blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bandana Dee piloting the armor wasn't originally what I had in mind for this chapter but decided on it at one point and just went with it.


	9. At rest once more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirby has to wait for his injuries to recover while Bandana Dee takes the armor around and grabs some stuff to use.

With Bandana Dee now joining the party, the group finally exited the digital world through a portal, now looking for an unoccupied area to settle down. Dropping Dan and Kirby in a room with several shelves and metal crates filling them, Bandana Dee hopped out of the armor and ran to his friend to tend to his wounds. Dan felt like he had to do something, so he plopped his pillow down next to them, which was used to set the puffball on. He watched in fascination as Bandana Dee was miraculously able to pull out the necessary equipment out of the armor, until Dan started getting tired. 

“I think it’ll be best if we settle down for now. I’m getting tired, and we can’t continue on with him like this,” Dan said.

“Sounds like a plan,” replied Bandana Dee, without even looking up from his work.

A little while passed until Dan said, “Maybe I should go look for something that we can use to rest on, like that mattress he and I used last time we rested. I doubt that using a single pillow would be comfortable for even one of us to sleep on.”

“Now hold on a second. There could be guards roaming around this place, and you’ve got no experience or tools to fend them off with.”

“Well then there has to be something around here that I _can_ use. Maybe one of those blasters I’ve seen them use, or even a broom or something, if they even exist here.”

“I think you should just wait here until I’m done with this, then I can come with you. It’s better for both of us that way.”

“Alright,” Dan said with a sigh. He took off his backpack and got out some food that he placed next to Bandana Dee. He then took out his tablet and took a look at what Gooey had been up to. The messages and mail system had notifications, and he decided to open up the messages first. There weren’t any new messages for a while, but he decided to respond anyway to see if he was there. While waiting, he opened up the mail program to see what had been sent to him. The only message there showed a couple pictures of food, which then materialized with the press of a button.

Just afterwards, Bandana Dee stood up and said, “All done! Now we just have to wait for him to heal up. It’d probably be best if someone stayed with him while he heals.”

“Oh. I was hoping I could come with you, but I guess that’s fine,” Dan replied.

“You won’t be any good to keeping him safe if we don’t get you something to defend yourself with though. I’m going to take the armor to the surrounding rooms to get you something you can use. If something happens, do your best to keep both of you safe, alright?”

“I’ll try,” Dan said with a bit of uneasiness in his voice.

“Okay. I’ll be right back,” he said, getting in the armor and walking out the door.

A little while passed when Dan thought he heard footsteps coming from outside. He froze, and gestured to Kirby to keep quiet. The footsteps passed, and Dan gave out a sigh. The footsteps then returned, this time sounding like a run instead of a walk. He panicked and picked up his backpack by the strap, ready to swing it as a weapon. A gunner sprinted through the door holding a small Game Boy remote that he had seen from the day before, as well as a gun. Without saying anything, it pointed the gun at him and before processing what had just happened, a giant fist smashed into it, sending it flying to the end of the room and bouncing back out the door after hitting the wall. 

“Looks like I came here just in time!” Bandana Dee said, walking inside.

“Good thing you did, too. I would’ve been dead meat had you not come just now. Thanks a whole bunch,” Dan responded.

“Don’t mention it. I was walking back over here to report that I hadn’t found anything of use, but it looks like now I have.”

“Cool.” Dan walked over to pick up the blaster and remote. Putting the controller in his pocket so he could use it later, he looked for the robot to control, until he saw it next to the unmoving guard that had just been launched. He picked it up and put it resting on him for a piggyback ride. “I guess you can continue searching around now. I’ve got enough here to defeat anything that tries attacking.”

“If you say so.” After a little he said, “Now that I think about it, we can put that little robot there to use. If you put that in the seat beside me, you could activate the controller and start waving it around if something happens. I’d be able to see it pretty quickly, too.”

“Actually, I have an idea of my own,” he said, pulling out his tablet and opening the messages. Just a few minutes later, a message had come back, ready for creation. “Watch this,” he said. Pressing the button, a large spherical object started forming in front of them. Two big eyes and a long tongue formed next, and the Gooey replica was soon finished. Bandana Dee stood speechless for a minute.

“Wow,” he said in awe.

“Think that’ll do the job?” Dan said.

“What does it do?” he asked.

“From what I’ve seen, he eats everything with that tongue of his," Dan explained.

“That oughta do it then. That means you’re coming with?”

“I’d like to stay here, but thanks for the offer.”

“Okay, see you soon!”

“Bye! And good luck!”

When he left, Dan decided to rest next to Kirby while he waited for Bandana Dee to return. The Gooey clone was hopping around the room and licking the wall in several different places. With a sigh, Dan took out his 3DS to pass the time.

* * *

It felt like a few hours before Bandana Dee returned, but Dan didn’t actually know how much time had passed. One large mattress similar to the one from the previous day was dropped on the floor, and a few pillows were placed on top of it.

“Where did you even find this stuff?” Dan asked.

“They were scattered around the rooms nearby. I have no idea why so many of them were empty,” Bandana Dee replied.

“I guess that doesn’t matter. Let’s set this stuff up for the night.”

Bandana Dee hopped out of his seat in the armor and got to work. In no time, the mattress looked at least somewhat more comfortable than it just was, with pillows and blankets set for each of them. 

“Guess I’ll go to bed now. Should we get him onto here?” Dan said motioning to the puffball lying on the pillow.

“He’s in enough pain already, and moving him would worsen it. At the very least we can give him a blanket.”

“Alright.”

By the time both of them were set to go to sleep, the Gooey clone looked tired. A little later, it disappeared into a small explosion of pixels. Bandana Dee set down his spear and laid down, Dan shortly following in suit, both of them falling asleep soon after.

* * *

_1 day since arrival_

_Storage room_

_A whole lot has happened today, where do I even start? After waking up this morning(?), I packed up the stuff and waited for Kirby to wake up. Once he was ready, we were off. Not too long after we left, we found a robobot armor lying around and he took control of it. I just sat down next to him while he busted through anything that stood in his way. It had to be abandoned when we reached the next goal gate, though. A little after the next cannon blast, we reached a portal that led to a completely digitalized world, save for the enemies. Needless to say, it seemed to prove difficult to him, but I don’t know as I just followed behind him as he defeated everything and dodged obstacles. Another goal gate passed, and we found a robobot armor again. There were a few encounters with Holo Defense APIs that summoned enemies to try and stop us. Compared to the armor, they were pretty weak and went down with a few blows. Later on, the armor took the jet ability and soared off as a plane. We dodged the blocks that tried to crash into us and enemies in our path until crash landing onto a platform. Just afterwards, a battle with a Security Force took place and Kirby got bruised pretty badly. Bandana Dee was nearby, luckily, and decided to join the two of us seeing as neither of us would be able to move on too well. Up ahead was one more robobot armor that Bandana Dee got to control, but he wasn’t able to use copy abilities with it. We moved forwards until we found an enormous robot that tried smashing us with its hands, but its weakness was the giant screw in its head and we took advantage of it. The goal gate was right ahead and we dashed forwards out of the digital world the storage room we’re in now. Bandana Dee tended to Kirby’s wounds, then took the armor to search for any nearby supplies. A guard walked in while he was gone and tried attacking, but he returned just in time to smack him flying across the room, dropping some weapons that I could use. Bandana Dee left again to search for more supplies while I got Gooey to send over a clone of himself that I could use as assistance against any enemies. When he came back, we got everything set up and he went straight to bed. The Gooey clone disappeared just then, too. I decided to stay up just a little longer, leading to right now, where he’s fast asleep and Kirby’s laying on a pillow to the side with a blanket over him. That about wraps up everything for today, I guess. Tomorrow, I expect us to reach the main office of this place, where if I remember correctly, a few familiar faces will be waiting. I think something will be off though, seeing as Bandana Dee has joined us and we still have a robobot armor, but we won’t know until it happens. One more thing: Star Dream should be waiting there, so I might be able to make a wish to go back home. But that’s just a thought._

_~Dan_


	10. Midnight meltdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan breaks down in the middle of the night while his buddies try to comfort him.

Like the day before, Dan was the first to wake up. He got up off of the mattress and headed over to his backpack, where he would try to find something to pass the time. As he approached it, a portal suddenly appeared below it and dropped it in, sealing immediately after. He stood there for a little, trying to figure out what happened when another one appeared below Bandana Dee and the mattress, taking both with it. One more then appeared below his other friend, and soon everything in the room except for himself was gone. Backing up towards the wall, he didn’t see one that had appeared behind him. His foot reached the portal and he lost his balance, falling into the portal with a shriek.

Dan quickly opened his eyes while sitting up and looking around him, breathing heavily in the process. Bandana Dee and Kirby were in their rightful places, his backpack was fine, and most importantly, he was still in the same place. Giving out a sigh of relief, he started laying back down, but stopped when he heard Bandana Dee whisper to him.

“You alright?” he asked in a tired voice.

“Yeah, just a nightmare,” Dan replied with an equally sleepy tone.

“Oh, really? The Fountain of Dreams might have been disturbed. What happened?”

“Well, I woke up here before you guys got up, and walked over to my backpack to get out my tablet. Before I got there, a portal appeared below it and took it in. More portals appeared beneath you guys and the rest of our stuff until I stumbled upon on, and...” At this point, he was close to crying from having to retell the story.

Seeing this, Bandana Dee said in a soft voice, “It’s okay. We’re not going anywhere. No portals will take us in, and if they try, then we won’t let them. We’ll be fine, because we work as a team. Nothing can stop us when we’re together.”

Dan already had tears rolling down his face as he tried to keep his whimpering quiet as to not wake up Kirby. “I don’t wanna lose you guys,” he said in between sobs. “Because if I did, then I wouldn’t have anyone else here, and one of those guards could just come up...”

“None of the guards will get you,” he assured him, sofly patting Dan on the back. “We each have our ways of defending ourselves, even you do now. These guys don’t even stand a chance against us. Take a look around. You have us with you, and we aren’t letting anyone or anything separate us from each other. And that’s a fact.”

Dan managed to calm down his crying a bit. He then noticed Kirby, now fully recovered of his injuries, waking up in front of him and looking around. Seeing that his friend wasn’t feeling too good, he walked over and gave a smile. “You know what? I guess I’m starting to see how great the three of us really are,” Dan said. He reached out and patted the top of the puffball. “You excel at using your spear and have the confidence and determination to conquer any challenge in your way, Bandana Dee. And you, Kirby, are always ready to take on any threats in your way.”

“And you too, Dan. For not giving up this whole time, and just making it here as well. Getting to this point was no easy task, even for Kirby, yet you still managed to persevere through this whole thing,” Bandana Dee added.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Taking a look at the two of them next to him, he told them, “Tomorrow, whatever’s in store for us, we’ll make it through. With how far we’ve gone, I don’t think that we’ll be failing any time soon.”

Bandana Dee gave a quiet “Yeah!” and pumped his hand up in response while Kirby hopped in front of them. Dan smiled, and laid back down to go to bed. The others followed suit, but Dan kept his eyes open for just a little longer.  _ This has been an excellent adventure _ , he thought to himself, and then fell asleep.


	11. The final confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally prepares for the final showdown, but not everything goes how they expect it to. Also Dan gets a crush on someone.

Dan got up before the others, and remembering from earlier, tried walking around to see if anything was off. Everything seemed to be normal, so he walked over to his backpack to get out something to do. First taking out his tablet, there wasn’t anything new, so he went back to his 3DS again. This time, he decided to play _Planet Robobot_ while he waited for the other two to get up.

Bandana Dee was the next to rise, moving from under the blanket and off of the mattress. Dan didn’t seem to notice, and continued playing. Taking a look at the strange device in Dan’s hands, Bandana Dee asked, “What’s that you have there?”

Dan quickly closed the screens and responded, “It’s... uh... my 3DS,” stuttering in the process.

“3DS? I’ve never heard of those. What’s it do?”

“It plays games. I was just using it while I waited for you guys to wake up.”

“What kind of games you got on there?”

“Uhh... that’s a secret,” Dan answered, nervousness creeping into his voice.

“Did something happen while I was asleep? You don’t sound too good.”

“N-no, I’m fine. Nothing’s happened, as far as I’m concerned.”

“I’m not so sure about that first statement. If something’s wrong, you can tell me, and we can talk it out. And Kirby over here doesn’t have to know if you don’t want him to.”

After a short mental debate, Dan said, “Maybe just take a look at this,” and walked over to show Bandana Dee his 3DS.

“I’m glad we can talk this out. We can even get this situated befo-” He suddenly stopped as he saw the screens of the console in front of him. He stood there and stared in disbelief at what was shown in front of him. Kirby was standing on the screen, and was also resting next to them. “I-” he stared, but wasn’t able to get the correct words out.

“I’ve had this here for quite some time, but decided not to show it to you guys. I’m sorry for not showing you sooner.”

“N-no, there’s no need to be. But... how did you get this?”

“Remember how you asked me about how I got here on one of our meet-ups? I mentioned going to bed and then not remembering what came next until waking up outside of this place. Well, that place where I laid down on my bed... I think it’s a different world of some sort.”

“What makes you say that?” Bandana Dee said with confusion.

“It’s kinda hard to explain. But one thing I’m certain of is that I’m not getting back where I came from easily.”

“Then we can do our best to help you home! Even if it’s difficult, we’ll help you because it looks like you’ve made good relations with Kirby, and a good friend of his is a good friend of mine!”

“Thanks, but keep it down. He’s still asleep.”

“Whoops. Sorry,” he whispered. “You got any ideas?”

“Nope.”

“We’ll figure out a way then. That’s a promise.”

Kirby soon got up and started looking around. He then walked over to the two of them and caught their attention. 

“Guess it’s time to start packing it up then,” Dan said.

There wasn’t much around that they needed to put away, but what did was done so quickly. They decided to rest before continuing forwards. They all sat in silence before deciding to get going.

“Will we still be able to use that mech over there?” asked Dan, pointing at the armor laying on the ground, still sporting Bandana Dee’s color scheme.

“Not for much longer. It looks like it could power down soon,” replied Bandana Dee.

Kirby walked over and hopped in, changing it to his own design and gesturing for the other two to hop in. After doing so, the armor walked out the door, towards the Access Ark’s head office.

The path from the storage room they rested in and their destination was fairly long and clear of guards, besides one or two stragglers that were quickly dealt a powerful punch. Dan and Bandana Dee were unaware of where they were going, and were looking at the doors they passed by. They were going too fast for them to read the signs near them, but it wouldn’t have mattered as they were all written in a different language. Finally, after a lot of traveling, they reached a door at the end of the seemingly endless corridor. Just then, the robobot armor shut down and lay motionless on the ground. The trio, led by Kirby, walked towards the door. It opened as they approached it, and inside was one of the portals they had seen earlier. The pink puff jumped into it, and the other two shortly followed

Once more, they found themselves in a digital world. As they landed on the surprisingly smooth floor, they looked around and then walked forwards. After going down a couple of steps, Bandana Dee looked as if he had gotten a great idea. 

“I think I should make an assist star right now. I have a feeling that something bad is waiting for us ahead,” he said.

He created one holding an energy drink and gave it to Kirby, who pocketed it for later. A few copy essences awaited them ahead, and the puffball jumped towards one and gained the Poison ability. Immediately after was a giant metal door that shone down spotlights on them as they approached. The three walked through the door and found themselves on a circular elevator that was quickly rising. The digital world around them started transforming into a regular environment as they rose, and by the time they reached the top, everything around them had returned to normal. A code cube appeared above them and started multiplying to form a diamond shape, opening up to reveal a large office when it completed.

“This is it,” Bandana Dee said. “It’s too late to back down now.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m coming along for the ride as well,” Dan said. “Let’s do this!” And with a cheer from all of them, they walked inside.

Kirby walked ahead towards a figure standing in front of them, Bandana Dee following close behind. Dan couldn’t make out who it was, and decided to hide behind a nearby plant just in case something happened. As the figure started talking to the two of them, Dan couldn’t make out what they were saying, but could hear that the voice was feminine, but something about it was... off. He took a look above the pot he was hiding behind to see that the figure was dressed in a white and grey suit with yellow floating hands and bright pink hair, which he immediately recognized. He hadn’t realized that he started flushing at the sight, but did realize that his face started to feel warm, so he decided to take off his hat and leave it next to him. Shortly after, she pulled out something that he couldn’t make out from where he was and a mechanized Meta Knight dropped down in front of them. The cyborg held up his sword as Susie walked away, letting a fight commence. Several spears and globs of poison were sent towards Mecha Knight+, and soon after, he flew a little off the ground and grew a giant claw off of his back. For a split second, they met eye contact and Dan immediately dove back down, hoping that he wouldn’t get caught. Bundling up behind the pot as much as he could, he didn’t notice a jet sound approaching him until a claw appeared beside him and grabbed his hat, nearly scaring him to death. It then moved it aside and grabbed him instead, and he couldn’t even make out a scream as he was in so much terror. They flew back to the dueling ground where a shocked expression appeared on both of his friends’ faces. He was then set down for a moment, but was immediately grabbed again, this time with his hat getting plopped on his head. He looked down at the two of them, which were staring back up at him.

“Oh! It looks like we have new guests joining us today.” The trio looked towards the source of the voice to see Susie walking back towards them.

“Hey! Let him go! He didn't have a part in this fight!” yelled Bandana Dee, taking a step towards her.

“But what would be the fun in that? If I let him go, then I wouldn’t be able to have any fun with him. And I haven’t yet introduced myself to him yet either. My nam-”

“Susie, yes, and you’re the so-called secretary of this company,” Dan cut in, doing his best to talk while still in the claw’s grasp.

“Well it seems like the new guest is already familiar with me. I can see why, too. Who wouldn’t know such a dashing executive of the Haltmann Works such as myself?” she responded.

She then took out her controller again and pressed a small button on it. Mecha grew two more claws and then grabbed Kirby and Bandana Dee before they had time to react.

“How sad. You came all this way just to get captured at the very end of your journey. That’s quite alright though. We can now continue our operations more effectively without you disrupting our progress,” she said, looking up at the three of them. “Well, I have no need for you at the moment. Take them away!” she said, opening a hatch on Mecha’s back and pressing a few buttons. 

As they were carried off back through the door they entered, Bandana Dee said, “I’m... so sorry for this, Dan.” But he wasn’t paying attention to him, as he now showed a blank expression on his face and was blushing deeply. “Dan?” Bandana Dee tried getting his attention, but received no response as they traveled back down the elevator.


	12. Locked up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party is tossed in a cell and they go do some things.

When Dan finally realized what was going on around him, he saw that his group was held by claws from Mecha Knight+, who had now taken them down a long corridor filled with doors. He stopped at one near the end and pressed a large button to the side of it. The door opened to reveal another portal similar to the ones they had seen the day prior. Mecha activated his jets and flew through it, the trio following in his grasp. They landed in a large room filled with holographic boxes, all empty. All three were forcefully thrown at a cage on the bottom of a stack, phasing right through it. Kirby immediately ran back up to the wall they flew in from trying to escape, but to no avail. Mecha flew back out the portal without a word, leaving them helpless within essentially a prison cell.

“So... now what?” Bandana Dee asked in a doubtful tone.

Dan just sat at the back of the cell, staring at Kirby, who was now banging at the walls trying to escape. “I really don’t know,” he responded in the same attitude. Without any other ideas, he searched through his backpack (which thankfully hadn’t been taken) for anything he could use. Opening up the largest pocket, he pulled out his tablet, giving him an idea. Turning to Bandana Dee, he said, “Actually, I think I may have an idea on what can be done.”

Taking a look at the tablet in his hand, he asked, “That tablet? What are you gonna do with it?”

“I’m going to try to contact Gooey to see if he can give us something to help us out of this mess. Hopefully he does, because he isn’t exactly the most reliable in this type of situation. Make that any situation, really.”

Dan sent a message requesting basic supplies such as food and drinks to Gooey, hoping that he would get a response soon. “Is there _anything_ we can use to escape this cell?” he asked.

“There might be, but there’s no chance any of us actually know what it could be,” Bandana Dee replied.

Dan sighed and sat back down against the wall again. He went back to sifting through his backpack and took out all of the food he still had stored, which wasn’t much. Seeing this, Kirby ran up to it and started inhaling. “Kirby, wait!” they said in unison, but he had already finished by the time they completed their sentence. They both stared at him, then sat back down without another word.

* * *

Gooey was having a lot of fun, but still wanted to get to talk to Dan. By pure luck, at that moment, a message appeared in the chat program. He excitedly ran up to it to see that he was asking for “supplies”, whatever that was supposed to mean. Dan had mentioned the mail program though, so he traveled towards it. Starting a new message, he thought about what he should send. _Supplies?_ That kind of sounded like “flies”, so he decided to add those. He also decided to add a pie and some fries, because those also sounded like what he was trying to get. Deciding that that should be enough, he sent the message and went back to the chat to talk to Dan.

* * *

After only a little while of waiting, a notification appeared on the tablet, which Dan was glad for. He opened it up and started the process of creating the attachments of the message, then said, “I’m really hoping he’s giving us something useful this time.” Before it had completed, a swarm of bugs appeared and started swarming the three of them before flying off through the cage, prompting Kirby to try once more to make it out. When the procedure was finished, a slice of pie and a bowl of fries lay on the ground. Dan snatched both of them before they got eaten, which turned out to be a wise decision.

“At least it's something,” said Dan, placing the bowl in between himself and Bandana Dee.

“Is this what you mean by Gooey being unreliable? The flies, I mean,” Bandana Dee said.

“I guess so,” Dan replied, taking his backpack and putting it in front of them so they couldn’t be spotted eating.

The two of them savored each and every fry they had until they finally ran out, in which Dan then placed the pie between them. “I’m not one for pie, you can have this one.”

“You sure? This is a big slice and I’m not entirely sure if I can finish this myself,” Bandana Dee responded.

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Suit yourself. I’ll hold on to anything I don’t finish in case you change your mind.”

Dan took a look in his backpack and took out his pillow. He decided to take a look at what Gooey had just done as he just got a buzz from his tablet. Gooey had sent him a message and wanted to talk, and deciding he had nothing better to do, Dan agreed.

He had spent a good amount of time in a conversation with Gooey, but it still took a while after finishing until he started getting tired. Most of the time was spent playing on his 3DS, which Kirby didn’t notice. “Y’know, I think I’m gonna get to bed soon.” Bandana Dee gave out a yawn and decided to get some rest as well. After seeing that they only had one pillow, they tried figuring out who would be using it.

“What are we supposed to do about this? One pillow and three people to share it with, that’s definitely not even,” Bandana Dee said.

“I can pass on the pillow. You or Kirby can use it, I’ll be fine without,” Dan decided.

“No, I think you should use it. You’ve gone through quite a bit lately, and you deserve the rest,” he replied.

“No, really, I’m fine.”

The two went back and forth for a little until Kirby walked over, plopped himself down on it, and fell asleep.

“I guess that settles it then,” Dan said, walking over to the corner of the cage. As he sat down, he realized that he there weren’t any blankets or anything to keep them warm. Bandana Dee also noticed this and said, “You happen to have anything to keep us from freezing tonight?”

“Well... I _do_ have my jacket,” he said in a slightly glum tone.

“Oh, well if you want to use it that’d be fine by me,” Bandana Dee said noticing Dan’s change in voice.

“No, no, I think it might be able to cover the both of us, seeing as it’s so big. Can you come over here so I can try it?”

He walked over to Dan’s corner and laid down on his back. Dan put the jacket over him and then laid down and put it over himself. It was barely able to cover both of them. They both quickly decided that it wouldn’t be enough to keep them warm through the night.

“Hey, uhh... would you mind if I... well...” Bandana Dee stuttered, feeling nervous to finish the question.

“Yeah?” Dan asked.

“Could I... say...”

“What is it?” he questioned as Bandana Dee trailed off.

“Uhh... h-hold onto you tonight? F-for warmth, I mean. It’s gonna get c-cold tonight and I don't wanna freeze.”

Dan seemed taken back a little by the question, as he was wondering the same thing. “Sure. I don’t wanna be cold throughout the night either,” he said, slight uneasiness in his voice.

“O-oh, thanks,” Bandana Dee said, now facing him.

They both lay there for a little, not doing anything, until Dan felt two stubby arms surround him in a clumsy hug, causing him to feel a little uneasy. When he looked back at Bandana Dee, he had already fallen asleep, so he decided to pull out his tablet and make an entry. After finishing, he took a moment and looked at Bandana Dee sleeping next to him, wondering what was making him feel so different. Eventually, he decided he needed to get some rest and went to bed.

* * *

_2 days since arrival_

_Jail cell_

_Today was supposed to be a big day, and it was, but it went horribly, horribly wrong._

_It all started this morning, when I got up first, again. After we all got up, we took a short break and then used the armor to continue onwards. We found another portal that took us to that strange world from yesterday again, but we left shortly after we went on a long elevator ride. The top of that led to a large office(?) where I decided to hide behind a nearby plant in case something bad happened. Susie was waiting for us, apparently, and pulled out a remote and summoned Mecha Knight+ soon after we entered. Everything was going great, until he got a great big claw on his back, and then noticed me in my hiding spot. I got grabbed, and soon after two more claws appeared on Mecha’s back and grabbed Kirby and Bandana Dee. A short chat from Susie later, and we were taken into a prison that we’re all in at the time of this writing. Also, for some reason, not one of the other caged in this room contains anything. I guess the only somewhat redeeming factor here is that none of our belongings got confiscated, which seems pretty weird. I managed to get Gooey to send some food over, but I don’t think we’ll be able to rely on him forever. As of right now, I’m once again the only one (in our party) awake, and I’m getting to bed as soon as I finish this. Kirby claimed the pillow, so Bandana Dee and I are next to each other in the corner using my jacket as a blanket. Something strange I’ve noticed is that I’ve been feeling a little strange today. It started when I was hiding behind that pot, then faded away by the time we reached the jail. It came back when Bandana Dee wrapped his arms around me to stay warm, and I’m still feeling it at the moment. I don’t exactly know how to describe how it feels, but the best I can say is that it feels a little difficult to move my arms and legs around normally, and I’ve been stuttering slightly. Anyways, I’m at least hoping that there’s some way to get out of this place, because it really stinks in here. Figuratively, I mean._

_~Dan_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dont know what i was doing with dan and banana dee at the end but im just going with it


	13. Unexpected arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some random shenanigans go on in jail.

Gooey was wandering aimlessly around, looking to see if there was anything interesting in the place he was in. Maybe, he thought, there could be a new window that he hadn’t discovered before. He passed by all the usual ones, sometimes stopping for seemingly no reason until he reached a large, empty void that seemed to span on forever. Without even acknowledging where he was going, he started out into it.

By the time he realized what he was doing, he didn’t see anything around him in any direction. He started walking in a random direction until a giant window suddenly appeared in front of him, blocking his path. Looking up at it, he saw a blue screen which quickly faded into his own home, planet Popstar. A small red marker with an H symbol on it appeared inside a giant grey sphere that covered most of the planet. He felt like going home after all this time, so he leaped towards the image and was sucked inside the program.

* * *

_3 days since arrival_

_Jail cell_

_I’ve only been awake for an hour or so as of right now, but have had quite the experience already._

_Yet again, I was the first to wake up, and I took a look outside while I waited for the others to get up. A gunner was waiting just outside, and was holding a remote of some sort. After seeing me awake, it pressed a button on it and soon after a Security Force comes in through the portal, arms whirring, and smashes into the back wall, waking the others up. The other two went up next to me waiting for something to happen while I gave a quick explanation of what just happened. It then came over to our cage, phased right through it, pointed an arm at me, and dropped a tablet similar to the one I have. It then walked back out and through the portal. Kirby picked up the tablet to see what it was for, but it gave him a shock and created a Holo-Kracko inside the cage. I went and hid in the corner while it faced a swift defeat from a set of spears, leaving the tablet on the ground. I decided to pick it up this time and this time it was fine. The screen showed a long series of characters in a different language, so it was of no use to us. I put it in the backpack for later just in case, and at that point we started hearing clanging sounds coming from all around. Right now, the other two are listening closely to see if something's gonna happen. I’m really hoping that by some stroke of immense luck, it’s somebody here to save us, but I doubt it._

_~Dan_

* * *

The vents were seemingly spotless, and screens lined every other wall. It was fairly crowded inside, but seeing as he was pretty squishy, Gooey had no problem traveling through them. He wandered through them, sometimes taking a look at the open panels to see what was beyond them, looking for something interesting. Finally, he reached an open panel at what he thought was the last direction to go in the giant maze. Peeking through it, he saw lots of boxes, all empty except for one on the floor. It was difficult to see inside of it, but he thought he had seen a speck of red in the corner. This, he decided, was going to be the one he went through. Backing up a little, he got a running start and smashed into it.

* * *

 _CLANG!_ The trio looked towards the source of the noise to see a blue blob falling down from the top corner of the room towards the floor. After landing on the ground, it turned around a few times until it revealed its front to the party, revealing two googly eyes, a wide smile, and a long, dangling tongue. Dan gave a look of surprise, while Gooey walked over towards the gunner, which wasn’t paying attention to what just happened. He stuck out his tongue and put the whole thing in his mouth and swallowed, next walking up to their cage. By the time he reached it, the second tablet they had made a small beeping sound, not loud enough for anyone to hear, stopping soon after it started. Kirby was the first to go up to him. The two exchanged a few gestures until Dan came up to him, giving off a wave while doing so.

“Hey Gooey!” The blob bounced around a little. “What are you doing here?”

He simply gave a strange look and started drooling. 

Dan stood confused for a moment until saying, “Oh, wait! You know me already. My name’s Dan. Remember? The guy you talked to over that chat thingy?” Gooey bounced happily and nodded. “Say, uhh... you able to get us outta here or something? We’ve been stuck here for a while.”

Gooey walked to the cage and hopped right through. The three watched in awe. “H-how did you do that?” Dan asked. Gooey showed confusion again and jumped back out. Bandana Dee then called the group together, Gooey included, to brainstorm what could be done with this ability.

“Okay,” he said, “this could be exactly what we need to get out of this. Now just what could we do to take advantage of this?”

“I have a thought, but I’m not sure how well it’ll work,” Dan said.

“We need all the ideas we can get, so let’s hear it.”

“Okay, so here’s what I was thin-” he started, but got cut off by the sound of a door opening in the normally silent prison. They stood in silence for a moment, trying their best to hear what was going on. None of them heard any footsteps, but they heard a door close, so they suspected someone approaching. “I think we oughta hide Gooey somewhere,” Dan whispered to the others.

“Where?” Bandana Dee whispered back.

“I dunno, maybe back in that hole he came from? It might be best for whoever’s coming not to know that there’s someone else here that could help us escape.”

“Sounds like a plan, but how do we get him up there?” asked Bandana Dee.

“Well, I have an idea. Kirby, it’s your time to shine here,” he answered, looking towards the puffball.

Gooey was inside of the puff’s mouth, ready to be shot out. Bandana Dee gave an ‘ok’, and the blob was sent through the cage, flying towards the entrance he came from just as a voice came from just outside the room, startling them.

“Must I have to be the one to finish such a simple task?” came a familiar voice, causing Dan to start feeling nervous.

Susie walked in through a door they hadn’t noticed before. “Hello again, everyone,” she said. “I’m sure you all remember me, so there’s no need for any introductions.”

“What do you want from us now?” Bandana Dee asked angrily.

“Quite the feisty one, aren’t you? I am here to finish what proved to be too difficult for the previous employees to finish,” she said, pulling out the remote she had used in the office.

Bandana Dee started looking a little anxious and walked up to Dan, taking his hand. Dan gave out a short gasp for breath and started breathing heavily, struggling to stay conscious. He wasn’t able to make out the ensuing conversation, and eventually couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed onto the ground. Before losing consciousness, he felt something tugging at his arm and the sound of something heavy landing nearby. After passing out, he was lifted into the air and taken out of the cage and through the door they had just seen.


	14. Distant mind

Dan opened his eyes to find himself sitting on possibly the most comfortable chair in his life. He took a look around to find himself in a small room with nothing but the chair he was sitting in and a large screen at the opposite end of the room as him. Making an effort to get out, he found that his arms and legs were attached to the chair by seemingly nothing. After a few failed attempts at struggling to break free, a door opened near the screen revealing Susie, remote in hand, walking in.

“Hello again,” she said, causing Dan to blush. “It seems you have finally regained consciousness. It would be best if we started our operation soon.”

“W-what... are you gonna do?” he managed to sputter out.

“Oh, I’d be glad to explain. We’ll have a helmet attached to you that will send certain emissions from your subconscious into your small device you have been carrying around. These can then be transmitted to this monitor,” she explained, gesturing towards the large screen. “These can then be translated into several sets of characters that can be more easily interpreted. We can then study these characters to understand the mindset of your species.”

“My... s-species?”

“Of course. You happen to be a member of an unrecorded specimen, and it would be most important that we gain as much information in case of an unexpected event that would lead to expiration.”

“E-ex... piration?”

“Yes. The process will begin shortly, so please prepare yourself,” she said as a gunner walked in carrying the aforementioned helmet. She walked over to the screen and entered a few commands, showing an empty text prompt similar to the one Dan used for log entries. 

“W-wai-” he started, but was cut off by the helmet being placed on top of him, rendering him unconscious once more.

* * *

Kirby and Bandana Dee were sitting in opposite corners of the cage, waiting for Gooey to approach. Both were gesturing, beckoning for him to come over, but he simply started at them blankly.

“Ugh! This is no use!” Bandana Dee complained. “Are there really no other ways to get him down?”

Kirby gave off his best impression of a shrug he could and continued his procedure. Bandana Dee sighed and walked to the back of the cell, taking out the unfinished pie. Kirby was too occupied to notice, but he caught the attention of Gooey, who was now drooling. Just as Bandana Dee was about to start eating, Gooey burst into the cage and swallowed the whole thing, including the plate.

“Gooey!” he scolded. “Well, at least we got him in here. So what’s the plan?”

Kirby pulled out a chicken wing and waved it in front of Gooey, who followed its movements with his eyes. Kirby then stuck it in his own mouth, making Gooey eye him hungrily. Soon after, he went up and ate the puff whole, slightly startling Bandana Dee. Now getting the picture, he pulled out an energy drink and tossed it out of the cage, causing the blue blob to jump out of the cage without spitting out what was already in his mouth. When he reached the drink, he released Kirby, who gave a small cheer now that he was free.

“Wow, that’s great!” Bandana Dee said. “But how do _I_ get out?”

The puff walked over and pointed at Gooey, who was still full from the energy drink. Immediately understanding, Bandana Dee pulled out a drink of his own and held it out. Gooey took notice and decided to eat the drink and Bandana Dee while still standing outside the cage. Shortly after, he was spat back out and sent tumbling along the floor. 

After picking himself back up, he exclaimed, “We did it! We made it out of here!” Kirby and Gooey smiled and bounced around. “We aren’t done yet, though,” he continued. “Dan’s still out there and could be in danger! We did see him get taken off by Mecha Knight, which likely isn’t a good sign. And we don’t have a clue where he could be, so we have no time to lose. Let’s get going!” The trio gave off a cheer and walked out through the door.

* * *

_Date: X6-Y23-678_

_Sector G9 Room 142_

_Process loading - 100% complete!_

_Target identified: Subject D4N3_

_Preparing translations - 100% complete!_

_Ready_

_..._

_..._

_I’m... awake_

_..._

Where am I?

_What is this place?_

_I don’t see anything._

_Where_ was _I?_

_..._

_I... was in a jail cell._

_..._

_Wasn’t I?_

_And... I was with... others._

Friends

_And I met some others, too._

_..._

_I met this one person wearing a bandana. I..._

_There was something about him. Something that made me feel..._

_..._

_I don’t know. But... there’s something that I can’t explain about him. And me. Something between the two of us, that only I understand._

_..._

_There was... this one other person. But... I can’t remember her name. She had... bright pink hair, that could be spotted anywhere._

_..._

_Her name... was Susie. I remember. And... I feel... something about her._

_I feel... close to her... if that makes sense._

_..._

_I feel that…_

_..._

_I still don’t know._

_I just want... for just..._

_The two of us..._

_To..._

_..._

_..._

To be together.

* * *

There had to be many thousands of doors to search, and there was no way that it would be possible to go through all of them in their search.

“What are we even supposed to do here?” Bandana Dee said hopelessly.

Kirby walked up to one of the doors, opening when he got near. Inside of the room were two gunners facing several floating targets, both of them rapidly shooting. He immediately walked back to where the other two were standing as if nothing had happened.

“I guess all we can do is go through each and every door, one by one. There’s no way we’re splitting up, because one of us could be lost in here for eternity if we did that. Alright then, let’s start searching!”

The three walked towards a door with the label “Room 1” on it. The door opened, and the three of them entered, though Gooey quite a bit behind as he was distracted by everything.

“Nothing here!” Bandana Dee called out, running out of a room. He dashed past the other two, who hadn’t even gotten a chance to enter, towards another door. “Nope!” he shouted, repeating the procedure once again. While Bandana Dee was in the midst of sprinting from room to room, he missed one of the doors, which Kirby quickly noticed. He called out to Bandana Dee, who quickly came up to him.

“What’s up?” he asked.

The puffball pointed at the unexplored door, causing Bandana Dee to look confused.

“What about it? Have I not gone in there?” he questioned.

Kirby nodded and walked towards it, Gooey and Bandana Dee trailing close behind. As soon as the three had all made it in, the door abruptly closed behind them, making the puff run back up to it and putting Bandana Dee in the lead. The door didn’t budge, so they continued walking into the room towards a dark space at the end of it. When they reached it, several lights turned on in the ground to reveal a large mechanical lobster sitting inactive on the ground. Kirby ran up to it and started inspecting it closely.

“Have I seen this thing before?” Bandana Dee muttered to himself. “It looks awfully familiar.”

Gooey bounced up to it licked it a few times, giving off a frown. He jumped on top of it and started hopping and spinning around, knocking over a can of paint sitting on top of it.

“Gooey, get off of there!” Bandana Dee yelled. “We don’t want that thing turning on right now!”

Gooey continued bouncing until he fell onto a button on the robot’s back, making it start emitting steam from several exhaust pipes. Two small hatches opened up on its front, revealing blue eyes in their places. The machine lifted itself up, knocking Gooey off of it, and took a step towards Bandana Dee, who pulled out his spear and took a fighting stance.

“Everybody, ready!” Bandana Dee called.

Heavy Lobster puffed out blue spheres instead of smoke for a moment, then boosted towards Bandana Dee. He quickly jumped out of the way and threw a few spears at the enemy. Kirby, meanwhile, walked up towards the can of paint Gooey knocked over and inhaled it, giving him the Paint ability. Dipping his paintbrush in his bucket, he swiped at Lobster, covering its eyes with paint. The two took the time to batter it with as many attacks as they could, while Gooey wandered off back towards the door. By the time the paint had cleared, Lobster was fairly beaten and was close to being destroyed. Bandana Dee charged one last spear thrust and smashed his target, causing it to start breaking down. They both backed up so as to not get hurt, and Heavy Lobster soon exploded into bits and pieces, which miraculously didn’t hit anyone.

“That... was exhausting,” Bandana Dee said, panting. “But we can’t afford to rest now. Dan is still out there, and he needs us the most right now. We can rest for a little, but then we have to get going again.”

Kirby and Gooey walked towards the door, which now opened when they approached, and sat down next to each other. Gooey looked slightly uncomfortable, so he jumped on top of the puffball and rested there. Bandana Dee walked towards them and sat down, needing some rest himself. Kirby and Gooey were having a little fun, now playing a sort of game where one would try to stay on top of the other for the longest, but Bandana Dee wasn’t paying too much attention as the only thing on his mind was saving Dan.


	15. Big trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lotta bad things happen.

_How many more rooms are there?_ Bandana Dee thought to himself. The group had finally reached the 100th door (according to the labels) and they still had no lead on Dan’s whereabouts. Kirby was trudging behind slowly, starting to get tired, while Gooey ran past him. The puff gave a gesture and was quickly eaten so he wouldn’t have to walk for a while. At last, Bandana Dee decided he couldn’t go on for much longer without stopping, so he called out to the others and walked into a room.

“I think... it’s finally time... to rest,” he said, panting.

Gooey spat out the puffball in the corner of the almost empty room, making him slide on his face along the ground. After getting up, he sat down against the wall, then Gooey came up and they went back to playing their game. Bandana Dee decided to take a look around the room. Walking up to a panel next to the door, he inspected it for any information he could find.

“Sector... G9,” he started, struggling to read the tiny print. “Room 1...09?” He decided that it wouldn’t be of any use to him and sat down near the other two, now both leaning against each other. Starting to get drowsy, he set his spear down, laid on his back, and closed his eyes, hoping to get his first good night of sleep in a while.

* * *

_Date: X6-Y23-679_

_Sector G9 Room 142_

_Process loading - 100% complete!_

_Target identified: Subject D4N3_

_Preparing translations - 100% complete!_

_Ready_

_..._

_Today... I’m going to..._

_..._

_What was I going to do again?_

_..._

_Oh... that’s right._

_I was going to..._

_..._

_No, I don’t remember._

_Then... what else was I going to do?_

_..._

_I was going..._

_Home._

_Yes, home._

_..._

But how?

_..._

_I can’t even go anywhere now._

_And there was... something else I was going to do before that._

_..._

_But what?_

_What was I going to do?_

_It was the same thing I couldn’t remember..._

_Right?_

_..._

_..._

_Can’t I get out of this place?_

_I... can’t do anything in here._

_..._

_W-wait..._

_I was going..._

_To say... how I felt..._

_..._

_..._

To her.

* * *

Bandana Dee opened his eyes to be met with a long tongue licking his face. Now wide awake, he recoiled back in disgust and did his best to wipe away the saliva off his face.

“Gooey!” he yelled. “Please don’t do that again. That’s... disgusting.” A sad look appeared on the blob’s face. “Well, actually, you _can_ do it again, but just make sure it’s fine with them first, okay?” He nodded.

Bandana Dee took a look around him. Kirby was already awake as well, and was eyeing Gooey closely. Everything was as they had just seen it, and they agreed to rest some, then get going again. Kirby and Gooey immediately went back to wrestling each other, and Bandana Dee gave off a sigh.

A few minutes passed until Bandana Dee decided that they were ready to go. After breaking up the ongoing brawl, he called them forwards so they could continue.

The first door they entered was similar to Lobster’s from the previous day, showing a dark area in the back of the room. Once again, after they had all entered, the door shut behind them. Gooey ran up to the dark area, activating the nearby lights and revealing a good-sized U.F.O. resting on the floor.

“Please get away from that,” Bandana Dee requested. “It’s best if we don’t have a repeat of yesterday.” Gooey stopped in place and stared at him. “Y-yes... just back away from it,” Bandana Dee said cautiously. Gooey smiled back and jumped on it, once again spinning around. Bandana Dee groaned and pulled out his spear, waiting for it to activate. A few seconds passed, then he hit the bullseye, causing the machine to start making noise and float into the air, taking Gooey with it. When it reached its maximum height, it opened a panel, showing a single bright light that rapidly moved around in its place. Kirby took a fighting stance, waiting for it to make its first move.

Dubior started zipping around the area, so fast that the barrage of spears aimed towards it all missed. It started charging up with an electric shield surrounding it and floated towards them, shocking the ground as it approached. Both swiftly dodged out of the way and Bandana Dee sent more spears at it, being careful not to accidentally hit Gooey, who looked like he was having the time of his life. Stars were spat out towards it from the electrifying attack, sending it recoiling slightly. It attempted its charge attack once more before being sent one giant star bullet, heavily damaging it. Dubior flew towards the center of the makeshift arena and summoned several homing missiles aimed towards them. Bandana Dee dodged while Kirby inhaled them for a massive attack. Sucking all of them in, he aimed towards his target and blasted it with a giant star. It was sent back some way, tumbling around before managing to recover itself and create another spark shield. Gooey happened to be unaffected by it, and started licking its top. It then charged forwards towards Bandana Dee, who jumped into the air and slammed his spear down, sending Dubior down for the count. He picked up Gooey and ran to the end of the room, Kirby following, so as to not be affected by the ensuing explosion. When it reached the ground again, it blasted into scraps of metal, which didn’t hit anyone, again.

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Bandana Dee said, slight fatigue in his voice.

The others nodded and went to the end of the room, deciding to take a short rest. Bandana Dee decided that he might as well get some too, seeing as that battle took some effort to finish.

* * *

_Date: X6-Y23-679 (cont.)_

_Sector G9 Room 142_

_Process loading - 100% complete!_

_Target identified: Subject D4N3_

_Preparing translations - 100% complete!_

_Ready_

_There’s... nothing._

_..._

_..._

_Nothing to do._

_..._

_Somebody... will be coming for me._

_That bandana guy..._

_He’ll be coming for me._

_..._

_I..._

_I really want out of here._

* * *

Gooey got up from his nap to see that Bandana Dee had fallen asleep. Giving Kirby a lick and waking him up, they walked outside towards the next room to see if they could be of any help while Bandana Dee got some rest.

Another familiar room greeted them, lit up completely except for a dark area in the back. Gooey instinctively walked to the back to see what surprise awaited him, not noticing the door shutting behind them. When he reached the darkness, lights turned on to reveal several robots sitting idly near the back wall. Doing what came naturally, he started towards them until he felt the puffball start tugging at him and shaking his head. Gooey stopped for a moment to look at him, then continued back towards the robots. Once again, he was stopped, and after being released again he made it to the set of robots. Leaping from bot to bot, each of them activated as he stepped on them, rapidly spinning their arms in front of them as he did so. Kirby got ready to fight as Gooey watched from the corner.

Each of the Security Forces fired out missiles aimed slightly above the puffball. He simply watched as they started combining into a large glowing object that he wasn’t able to make out. Eventually, he took a few steps back as it started to get too big for him to keep standing there safely. Rockets continued to appear as Kirby started walking towards where Gooey was waiting, Security Forces making no move to stop him. When he looked back towards the light, it almost reached from floor to ceiling as the missile barrage stopped. The two took one more look at each other confusingly before the light dimmed to show one large missile. When it touched the ground, it started reddining rapidly, slightly expanding, until...

* * *

Bandana Dee was jolted awake from his unexpected nap by the sound of an explosion. Looking around, he noticed that Kirby and Gooey weren’t there, so he decided to investigate the source of the explosion in case they had gone off exploring.

The damage came from the room right next to the one he was in, yet there were no signs of anything happening in there. Confused, he walked back out the door only to immediately step back when he saw a familiar shade of pink approach the doorway. After he was sure she had passed, he slowly looked out the door to see where she was going. Susie entered the room adjacent to the one he was in, but he wasn’t able to quite see what was inside from his angle. Walking up to the far wall, he brainstormed on what his next move should be.

* * *

Kirby and Gooey lay motionless on one large cushiony... thing, of some sort. Neither of them could look down to see what it was. Gooey finally started to open his eyes and saw his friend laying next to him as well as a large, red cubic cage surrounding them, except unlike the previous one, this one was the only one in the small room. He looked down to see them lying on a similarly looking surface, except blue. Doing the first thing that came to mind, he walked over to the puff and gave him a good, solid lick on the face, waking him up. As he rubbed his eyes, regaining his senses, he noticed the blue blob standing next to him and happily bounced in front of him.

* * *

Bandana Dee heard the sound of a door opening nearby, and assumed it was the door Susie entered. Checking to make sure, he saw her walking in the opposite direction of his room. Carefully, he tiptoed to the door she had entered and walked inside.

The room contained a large monitor showing several lines of characters that he couldn’t make out from his position. Getting closer, he started to read only to notice a familiar shade of red in the corner of his eye. Turning his head in disbelief, he saw Dan sitting down in a chair at the end of the room. His head was tilted downwards, eyes closed, and was wearing a strange hat on his head. 

“Dan!” he called out, running up to him. “Dan! I’m so glad I found you! I oughta get you out of there before something happens to you.” After receiving no response, he looked somewhat depressed. “Dan?” He tried calling him a few times, but with no luck. Eventually, he settled on getting him out of the chair and to safety, seeing as that was all he could do for him. He tried simply lifting him out of the chair, but was unable to as there was something linking Dan to it. After a few more attempts, he heard footsteps approaching. Acting fast, he ducked behind a box near the back of the room just as the door opened and two gunners walked inside. He didn’t try to take a peek at what they were doing in case he got spotted doing so. After a little while, the door opened and they left.

Bandana Dee walked up to the large monitor to see if it contained anything useful. He stopped at Dan to give him a few words of encouragement, even if they went unheard. The screen showed several different lines, each showing different sets of unintelligible characters. One line showed an exclamation mark next to it, so he selected that option and was met with something big. In front of him now were several paragraphs of text, some broken up by pauses in between. He scrolled up to the top to see a header stating something about subject ‘D4N3’. _Could that be Dan?_ He started reading, then immediately wished he hadn’t. Within the paragraphs was information that Bandana Dee was less than willing to read, something about himself and Dan, as well as Dan and... _Susie_? The content of the paragraphs were somewhat... disturbing to Bandana Dee. _Make that fairly disturbing,_ he decided. He eventually decided to stop after a little while and walked back up to where Dan was sitting, still unconscious.

“I’m gonna get you out of there, okay?” Bandana Dee whispered somewhat uneasily to him, now knowing what was going on in his mind. He then walked back out the door and to the room where Dubior was defeated to figure out what to do next.


	16. Together at last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group finally gets reunited again.

Kirby and Gooey were thinking up ways to escape their new cell, but to no avail. Of course, Gooey simply tried walking through it like he could with the previous one, but he wasn’t able to. After a few minutes of attempts, he finally gave up and sat down next to Kirby against the wall. Shortly afterwards, the door in front of their cage opened up, and two gunners walked in, one holding a remote while the other held a tablet. The one holding the tablet pressed a few buttons on it and then left with the other following close behind. 

Several minutes later, the two heard quick footsteps approaching, and they turned their attention towards the door. It opened up, this time showing Bandana Dee and a wobbly Dan a fair distance behind. The two in the cell looked happy to see them and waved, Gooey using his tongue as he didn’t have arms. The other two waved in response, albeit Dan a little weakly, and Bandana Dee walked over to a control panel next to the and started smashing it with his spear. When seeing it did nothing, he walked towards the cage to where Kirby and Gooey were standing.

“Hey guys!” he said while Dan stumbled towards the control panel. “We’re here to get you out of here, one way or another,” he said, now leaning against the cage. “Unfortunately, however, the trusty strategy of bashing the control system of whatever is operating this thing doesn-”

He fell into the cage as the wall he leaned on disappeared, giving off a grunt in the process. Looking back towards the control panel, he noticed Dan standing next to it and supporting himself against the wall.

“Hey, how did you do that?” Bandana Dee asked.

“I... pressed a few buttons... and it opened. I guess,” Dan replied, struggling somewhat in his speech.

“That’s... cool, then. Alright, it looks like we got you guys out of here, so let’s get going!”

Bandana Dee started towards the door, then stopped just before he reached it.

“Wait, where were we going again?” he questioned.

“N-no... idea,” Dan said.

“Y’know, maybe we can figure that out later. I know we’ve been doing this a lot, but it would be a good idea to get some rest right now. I’m sure that we could all use it, especially you, Dan.”

“S-sounds... like a plan.”

* * *

“So...” Dan started. “Where are we going now?”

The group was walking down a long hall filled with doors. He couldn’t see a difference in any of them besides the label above each of them.

“Oh, you’ll see.” Bandana Dee answered, rounding a corner. “Hey, I think we’re here now!” he said, stopping in front of a door.

“What’s so special about this one?” asked Dan.

“Nothing,” Bandana Dee responded. “We’re using this room in particular because it’s a decent place to rest, and Kirby, Gooey, and I have used it for just that.”

“Okay, then what are we waiting for? Let’s go in,” Dan said, taking the lead and entering the doorway. 

Inside the room, it looked fairly similar to the empty room he and Kirby rested in for his first night. Nothing but a few small scraps of metal lay on the ground, which Dan took note of.

“So... is there anything we can use to make this place at least a little more comfortable to rest in?” he asked.

“Not that I know of, but it should be fine. At the very least we have one pillow we can use.”

“Yeah, but we also have one more member in our party. What are we gonna do about that?”

“Gooey’s got a... uh... let’s say ‘special’ method of staying comfortable, so that won’t be too much of a problem,” Bandana Dee answered.

“Okay, then.” Dan took off his backpack and started taking out his belongings for the first time in a while. “Say, how long has it been since I was taken out of that prison cell?” he asked Bandana Dee.

“Hmm.” He thought for a moment “I think it’s been around two days.”

“Wait, really? Well, I guess there was no way for me to know how much time passed while I was in that chair.” After taking everything out that he needed, he asked, “Speaking of that, uhh... can you tell me what happened just after I woke up? I wasn’t feeling all that great.”

“Oh, sure. We have time to spare, so it's no big deal,” he said. “Anyways, it begins just after I had found you...”

* * *

After reaching the site where Dubior was defeated, Bandana Dee sat down against the wall, partially thinking about the text on the monitor and partially thinking of a way to free Dan.  _ There’s no way that the text on that monitor was Dan’s mind. There’s just no way.  _ He tried convincing himself over and over, saying it gave no confirmation that it could be him. At the same time, he shuddered slightly at the thought of if it was. Eventually putting it all aside, he thought of ways to get him out. There was the obvious strategy of just smashing everything and hoping it breaks something that allowed him to escape, but it also had the possibility of injuring him. He could also try to mess with the controls to set him free, but he had no knowledge on how they worked, so that was out of the question. Not much else came to his mind, so he was going to rely on breaking things. Hopefully it worked, because if it didn’t, then he would be completely clueless. He was about to exit when he heard footsteps approaching, so he quickly went up the panel next to the door and pressed a few buttons, glad that he could understand them, locking the door from the inside. After waiting a few moments, he was ready to make a break for it, but then heard more footsteps. He continued hearing them nonstop, so he decided to take a nap while he waited.

* * *

_ Date: X6-Y23-680 _

_ Sector G9 Room 142 _

_ Process loading - 100% complete! _

_ Target identified: Subject D4N3 _

_ Preparing translations - 100% complete! _

_ Ready _

_... _

_ What is it this time? _

_... _

_ Nothing’s happened... _

_ Yet. _

_... _

_ I have a feeling... _

_ That today will be the day I get out of here. _

_... _

_ I hope so... _

_... _

_ I still need to get out of here... _

_ So I can tell her… _

_... _

_ And there’s something else about her... _

_... _

_ Something... _

_ That can’t simply be fixed. _

_... _

_ But it can be helped. _

_ I... _

_ Was going to say... _

_ That... _

_... _

_ pRRRRRRRRR _

_ FATAL ERROR _

_ PLEASE RECONNEgggggggggg _

_ LOADING BACKUP FILES - Process failed _

_ System shutdown _

* * *

“Dan! Get up!” Dan groaned and opened his eyes. He was being wobbled by something holding onto his shoulders. He looked up to see Bandana Dee standing in front of him in a small room. Behind him, destroyed machinery lay on the wall and floor. He was sitting in what he thought was the most comfortable chair in his life.

“Oh, you’re up! This is fantastic!” Bandana Dee shouted.

“W-what... happened? Where... am... I?” Dan asked weakly.

“I can explain in a second, but what’s important is that you’re okay!”

“Where are... the others?”

“Come on, I’ll tell you everything in a minute, but we need to get you to safety before something happens.”

“O-okay.” He started getting up only to stumble and fall onto the ground. Bandana Dee came up to him to give him a hand.

“Come on, it’s not that far from here. I’ll help you.”

Bandana Dee helped him up, making him flush, which this time Bandana Dee took note of. They then made their way to the door, and out into the corridor.

The two reached a door in the hall that automatically opened when they reached it. Bandana Dee helped Dan sit down, then walked towards the door and pressed a few buttons on the nearby panel. Afterwards, he came back to Dan and sat down next to him.

“S-so... what happened? And where... are the others?”

“Here’s what I know. I’m not sure if you recall, but you fell over in the cage not too long after we sent Gooey back into the vents. That pink-haired girl entered the room, saying something about studying you, or something like that. Mecha Knight came in just after you collapsed, picked you up, and took you out through the door. After that, we don’t know what happened to you besides that you ended up in that room we were just in. Anyways, Kirby, Gooey, and I went exploring through the rooms searching for you, defeating a few machines along the way. We decided to take a rest at one point, but by the time I woke up, Kirby and Gooey were gone. I went looking for them, but found no clues. I did, however, find the room you were staying in. I took one more rest while I tried figuring out how to free you, and I settled on smashing the monitor in that room to bits. That then leads up to just a little while ago, when you recovered.”

“Do you... happen to know if... my backpack was in there?” asked Dan.

“I’ll go check,” he said, leaving through the doorway. After a short while, he returned holding Dan’s backpack.

“Oh... thanks,” he said.

“It’s nothing.” The two sat in silence until Bandana Dee edged closer to Dan. He didn’t seem to notice, so he kept sliding closer until Bandana Dee put his hand over Dan’s. Dan looked down at their hands, then his friend, his own face now beet red. 

“O-oh...” Dan said softly after a moment.

Bandana Dee winked at him, then got up and walked towards the door, beckoning for him to come over. Dan managed to pick himself up and started towards him. Bandana Dee took his hand, only partly to help keep his balance, and the two walked out the door.

After Dan managed to calm himself down enough to the point where he could talk properly, he asked, “W-where are we going?”

“To find the others, of course,” he responded.

“Do you know... where they are?”

“Not exactly, but I have an idea,” he said, walking towards one of the doorways. “This should be it,” he said, stopping in front of it and letting go of Dan’s hand.

“Well then... let’s go,” he said weakly.

* * *

“Wow,” Dan said finally. After a moment, he then asked, “How did you... um... know that...”

“That’s something that I can’t tell you,” he replied.

“O-okay...”

Dan went towards his backpack only to see that it had already been emptied. Looking around, he spotted his pillow a good distance away from him, as well as Gooey bouncing towards it.

“Dibs on the pillow tonight!” he shouted, dashing towards it. Gooey pounced on it just as Dan hit it and they started a tug of war to see who would get it. After constant pulling back and forth, Gooey was able to pull the pillow out of Dan’s grasp and set it down in the corner. Dan sighed and walked back to Bandana Dee.

“Ugh. Maybe I can get it tomorrow,” Dan complained. “Anyways, what’s the plan for tomorrow? We’re all together again and it looks like there’s nothing blocking us from... well, anything.”

“I still don’t know myself, but I’m sure Kirby will figure it out. He always knows what to do.”

“Fair enough.” Dan took out his tablet and opened up his log, only to be met with several entries that he didn’t remember creating. He took a look at them to see several, broken lines of text, seemingly reflecting on his own thoughts. Shrugging it off, he made a new one for the day and went to sleep, again holding onto Bandana Dee so they could stay warm through the night.

* * *

_ 5(?) days since arrival _

_ Dubior storage _

_ Wow. Just wow. I’ve been in for a wild ride these past few days. _

_ Starting off, the clanging the three of us heard while in the cell happened to be Gooey, who somehow made it to us. I’m pretty sure that means no more easy supplies, but I guess that’s fine seeing as he isn’t all that great at sending them anyways. He was able to pass through the jail cell, but we weren’t able to take advantage of that before Susie entered once more. I can’t remember exactly what happened after that, but I’ve heard from Bandana Dee that I collapsed onto the floor and passed out, then got taken away. The next thing I remember, I was sitting in a small room where Susie returned once more. From that point, I’m reaching a large blank. _

_ The next thing I remember, I open my eyes to see myself in that same room, Bandana Dee now in front of me, and he helps me out of the chair I was stuck in. According to him, Gooey was able to help them escape the cages and the three of them went around searching for me. They fought a few robots along the way and decided to rest in one of the rooms for a while. Somewhere in between Bandana Dee falling asleep and waking back up, Kirby and Gooey were sent to a jail cell, and he noticed they were gone when he got up. He went searching around, then happened to find the room I was in. He didn’t know what to do, so he went back to the empty room to figure out how to free me. He decided on just smashing the monitor that was in the room, and it actually worked! After I got up, we went to the adjacent room where... I’ll just say some interesting stuff happened between us. A little while later and we were set to go searching for the other two. Bandana Dee apparently knew where they were, which I’m not even going to question. And actually, I managed to set them free by getting lucky with the control panel, I guess? Once they were free, we all stopped in the room we’re in now where everyone but me is currently asleep. There’s not much else to say besides that, except for the fact that several entries appeared on here without me even knowing, for some reason. I’ll get to taking a good look at them tomorrow, when I’m not so tired, and who knows, maybe I’ll be able to see something interesting in there. _

_ ~Dan _


	17. Darkened duel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party finally returns to the office for a rematch.

Dan yet again woke up to see everyone else still fast asleep. Silently, he weaved out of Bandana Dee’s grasp, careful not to wake him, and walked towards his backpack. Taking out his tablet, he opened the log and looked at the new entries.

Kirby was the next up, and he got up off of the pillow, knocking off Gooey in the process and waking him up as well. Gooey went up to Bandana Dee and gave him a lick, getting the last of the group up, and the three walked to where Dan was sitting against the wall.

“Ugh,” Bandana Dee groaned tiredly. “Does he have to wake me up like that? Well, I guess I did need to get up eventually.”

The group agreed to have a short break and then get going for the day.

“Any word on what’s happening today?” Dan asked.

“No. I’m thinking we’ll just be going back into that office for a rematch, but I’m not sure.”

After getting enough rest, they got up and walked through the door, Kirby taking the lead.

The quartet traveled down another long corridor, not stopping at any of the doors. Several guards blocked their path this time, but with three members that could fight, they all went down quickly. Finally, Kirby stopped them in front of a door near the end of the hall. He walked into it, the others shortly following. Inside was a familiar portal, and they all jumped into it.

The party once again found themselves inside the digital world with several copy essences lying ahead. Bandana Dee created an assist star for Kirby, who grabbed the Poison ability as they passed by. Beyond the giant door was the elevator ride, which led them to the code cube portal. Dan shuddered a little at the sight.

“Don’t worry, Gooey can stay with you this time around,” Bandana Dee told him.

“N-no, it’s... not that.”

Bandana Dee didn’t ask any questions and took his hand for a moment. Afterwards, he called the group together for a cheer and they walked into the office for another battle.

The room was just as they remembered it, large and mostly empty besides a desk and a few plants near the corners. Dan called Gooey over and hid behind one of the pots. The other two walked towards where Susie stood, her back turned towards them. By the time they were just a few steps away from her, she still stood in place, and the two looked at each other in confusion. Shortly afterward, she turned to face them, pulling out a larger remote than the one she had previously used and pressing a button on it. The ground beneath them started shifting and opened up to reveal a somewhat circular platform, Star Dream placed at one of the ends. After a short speech, she pressed another button on her remote, trapping Dan and Gooey in a miniature cell. She took a quick look towards them, then summoned Mecha Knight again for a fight. After she walked off, Mecha held up his sword and lunged towards Kirby.

Dan's attention was fixed on the battle, and he didn’t notice Gooey bumping him a few times. When Mecha flew up to gain his claw, Dan noticed what Gooey was doing and looked at him awkwardly.

“What?” he asked.

Gooey simply frowned in response and looked back towards the battle. Dan looked around a bit more, and when finding nothing, he focused on it as well.

Mecha Knight was close to being defeated, and was struggling to continue fighting. Susie then walked a little closer to the duel and took out her remote. Dan noticed this from the corner of his eye and assumed she would be summoning another opponent or sending a command to Mecha. When she pressed a button on it, the cage he and Gooey were in started changing colors rapidly and slightly brightening. Eventually, the cage stayed lime green and a rectangular field covered the top of it. Dan looked up at it, and it then quickly swept downwards directly through the two of them, rendering them unconscious.

* * *

Bandana Dee tossed one final spear at Mecha, causing him to fall to the ground. Slowly looking up, his mask suddenly broke, and after looking around, he teleported away.

“How can this be?” Susie said, walking up to the two of them. “All of this time, spent perfecting this model, only for it to be destroyed by two of you natives.” She held out her remote once more. “No matter. This situation can be solved simply.” She pressed a button on it, but the two didn’t notice anything happen.

A loud clank was heard close by and they looked towards its source. Star Dream had opened its eye and was now staring at them. Without another move, it started making several engine sounds and created a small test tube with a purple orb encased inside of it. The tube floated gently down, then was violently smashed onto the ground, causing the orb to start expanding. Susie walked off as the orb formed into a larger black sphere, covered by a grey cloak. The sphere had spiky hair, one eye, and held a long sword with a rainbow aura that it pointed at them. Kirby and Bandana Dee took a fighting stance as the figure floated towards them.

Dark Matter Clone started off with a simple lunge, which was swiftly dodged. It tried once more before floating higher off of the ground and holding its sword up high. Pointing its sword towards them, it dashed ahead, rapidly slashing the area in front of it. After repeating this a few times, it went back up high and created a dark orb at the tip of its blade. The orb was sent towards them, but got sent flying back after being struck with a glob of poison. Several more were sent flying their way, but were all easily deflected. A few spears and globs later and Dark Matter recoiled back a fair distance, opening its cloak further and revealing a large eyeball beneath. Orange spheres coated it which got sent towards the duo, but were all dodged. It tried once more with its orb attack, but was damaged heavily in the process, so it lunged back close to the ground and created several rings of orange spheres around itself. Many rounds later, a swarm of blobs were floating above at the ready, and Dark Matter pointed its sword towards the two, sending them all flying towards them. Bandana Dee did his best to dodge or block as many as he could, but still got damaged by some of them. Kirby simply created a fountain of poison from his head and aimed it towards the onslaught, destroying all directed towards him. Bandana Dee then waved to his friend and called for a team attack. Charging up a spear toss and enlarging it in the process, Kirby started covering it with poison to inflict even more damage. When ready, he tossed the spear with as much force as the could, sending it soaring towards their opponent. It was barely able to react before being struck, the spear bouncing off and disappearing. Dark Matter fell back and started transforming back into the purple goo, getting sealed inside the tube when it was fully reverted.

“We did it!” Bandana Dee cheered. He quickly stopped when he saw another tube appear from Star Dream, shattering once against the floor and taking form. He groaned and took a fighting stance, Kirby quickly following in suit.


	18. Micro time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dan the hot dog man gets smal

Gooey opened his eyes to see himself free from the cage. Inspecting the area, everybody else had already left the room. Just then, two guards entered the office and started closing in on them. He backed up a little as one picked up Dan and the other his backpack, held them up, and walked towards the exit. Inattentively, he followed.

The sentires made their way back to the long corridor and started walking down just as Dan woke up. Rubbing his eyes, he immediately noticed that he was being carried away and struggled to get free, but without any success. He then noticed Gooey following them freely, and motioned for him to come over.

“Hey!” he whispered. “Can you help me out here?”

Gooey just stared back at him.

“Can’t you please get me off of these guys?” Nothing. Dan gave it a little thought, then said, “I bet these guys are pretty tasty, wouldn’t you say that?” Still nothing, but Gooey started drooling. “Come on, you know you want to. Look I’ll... even toss in some food of my own too, just go snack on these guys.”

That pushed him over the edge, so he walked up, ate one of them, dropping Dan in the process, and spat it back out at the other, sending them tumbling. Gooey looked at them, then gave off a frown. 

“Not your thing? Sorry, I’ve never had one of those guys and I don’t really want to try, either. Thanks for freeing me though.” Gooey nudged his backpack a few times. “What now?” He stuck his tongue out and waved it a few times. “Oh, right! Your food!” He walked over to it and opened the first pocket to see what still remained inside.

The guard that didn’t get eaten started getting up slowly and pulling something off of its back. Looking up, it saw the boy and a strange blue blob standing next to it. Weakly, it pointed a ray gun towards the kid and steadied it as much as possible. Pulling the trigger, it sent out a pink ray directed towards Dan.

“I could’ve sworn I had something in here. Well, mayb-” He got cut off as the laser hit him, dizzying him and making him fall onto the floor, face first.

* * *

Kirby and Bandana Dee opened their eyes to find themselves in the Dubior battlefield once more. 

“What are we doing here?” Bandana Dee almost mumbled from drowsiness. 

Looking around, he realized that the other two weren’t with them, and that he didn’t know where they were. A short panic came to him, then dispersed when remembering that Gooey would be able to keep Dan safe, no matter how odd he may be at times. With a sigh of relief, he laid down for a moment before going searching for them once more.

* * *

Dan regained his senses and looked around to see where he was. Another long hallway surrounded him, except this one was extremely massive. Walking forwards a little, he reached a large red mass of some sort laying in the middle of the walkway. Starting to move around, he was met with an enormous blue sphere just behind it. Eventually, it turned itself to reveal its signature lengthy tongue dangling out of his mouth, making Dan understand what had happened. He tried waving and yelling at the enormous Gooey trying to get his attention, but went unnoticed as he was so small. After a few more helpless cries, Gooey picked up Dan’s backpack and walked down the corridor. He watched in despair, as his only means of getting help had now disappeared.

The loud sound of a door opening startled him, and he swerved around to see where it came from. Not far away, two guards emerged from a room and started approaching. From what he saw, he would likely get stepped on if he didn’t move, so he made a dash towards the wall. The two passed, narrowly missing stepping on him. Panting heavily, he heard another door open to see Susie approaching from a door farther down. Simply staring for a moment, she continued getting closer until he realized that he could get help. Within a few seconds, she would pass by, and Dan decided to try and grab onto her in hopes that she could help, completely forgetting that they weren’t exactly friends. With a giant leap, he barely managed to snatch the bottom of her suit and they traveled down the hall once more.

Susie stopped just after entering a door, so Dan took a look at where they ended up. A large table (to him) lay just ahead, and the sound of metal being placed could be heard from where he was. A good while passed and no movement from her, so he decided to try and reach the table to grab her attention. Gently falling onto the floor and walking forward, he was thankful for the table design that conveniently acted as a ladder. The ascent seemed to last forever and took a great deal of effort, but he eventually reached the top. The noise from earlier came from the rearranging of several cubes, but Dan didn’t notice as he was too busy admiring Susie’s face, still focused on her work. Eventually, she finished and turned around, making him finally remember what he was doing. With a quick sprint and a leap of faith, he managed to barely grab onto her long, pink hair, and they went back into the hall.

* * *

A few short bounces later and Gooey already forgot where he was going. Stopping and taking a look around, nothing interesting sparked his eye, so he stood there, staring blankly at one of the doors. A soft mumbling then reached him, so he went towards its source. Standing in front of the door and hearing a familiar voice, he entered the room.

* * *

The door opened up, making the two get up hastily and prepare for whatever greeted them. After seeing who it was, however, they dropped their angry expression and walked over.

“Gooey!” Bandana Dee called out to him. “Where’d you come from?”

Gooey set down the backpack he was carrying and looked down at it sadly.

“What’s wro-” He suddenly stopped as he realized what it meant. “Oh... no.”

The three gathered around it and stood for a while until Gooey picked it up with his tongue and set it down in the corner. Bandana Dee stood still for a moment before following.

“We don’t have a moment to lose. Kirby, you and I should go look for him while you, Gooey, can stay here and uhh... do whatever it is you do, alright?” He smiled and nodded in response, and Bandana Dee called the puffball over to go out on another adventure.

* * *

_ How much longer is she going on for? _ Dan wondered as Susie continued seemingly endlessly down the several passageways. He hadn’t decided to try and climb up her hair, seeing as he wasn’t all that great at it in the first place and it would be more difficult with her moving. Almost losing his grip again, he held on as tight as he could as he continued waiting to reach a stop.

Dan was jolted forwards along with Susie’s pink hair as she finally came to a stop. Getting a quick glance around, he saw a long red carpet adorn the floor and no other doorways down for a long way. He wasn’t able to see much else before being taken into a room, which seemed to require a certain code to enter, from what he noticed. Inside, two more doors appeared just ahead, and they went through the one on the left side. Within that large (even at normal size) room, a red rug similar to the head office’s coated the entire floor, and a fancy mattress piled with several pillows rested atop a golden bed frame. Without getting a good look at everything around, a light grey surface suddenly surrounded him and lifted him up, then took him down towards the ground. Managing to land on top of it and glad that it was soft enough to break his fall, he abruptly got covered up by it as he tried once more to examine the surrounding area. Hearing something soft land nearby, he wandered towards a nearby opening to see what it was. Peeking outside, a large black object lay on the ground nearby, still confusing him on what just happened. The sound of a door opening and closing was heard, so he jumped out to explore the area.

A metal wardrobe (or at least he thought it was) that he hadn’t noticed before stood just in front of him. It used the same design as the table from earlier, so he scaled it to get a better view of the surrounding area. The top was entirely barren except for small specks of dust every so often, and he walked ahead to look around. The only thing he hadn’t already noticed was a nightstand next to the bed, so he carefully made his way to the floor.

Just after reaching the ground, Susie reentered the room, dressed in an identical suit to the one she just wore, and picked up her old clothes. She was about to exit, but then noticed a small organism of some sort next to her storage unit. Robots periodically swept by to clean up trash and the sort, so she set down her clothes and went to inspect it. Dan was out in the open, so there was nothing he could do but watch. Two large, blue eyes stood right in front of him, trying to make out what was standing there. Staring back, he didn’t notice the large hand that was placed just in front of him until it gave a nudge, sending him stumbling onto the ground. After a short while, he realized what she wanted him to do and climbed onto her hand. Careful not to let him fall, Susie took him back out into the hall.


	19. Mixed personality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan has some interactions with Susie.

Bandana Dee sighed. “Not this one,” he called out as he walked out of a room. Entering and exiting another, he shook his head.

Just as he approached another door, Gooey burst in front of them and dashed through it.

“Gooey! What are you doing here?”

The two walked in behind him, revealing another dark room. Noticing this, Bandana Dee ran towards Gooey to try and stop him from activating whatever machinery lay ahead, but wasn’t fast enough. Lights revealed a large set of cannons sitting at the end of the room as Gooey danced on top of them. Pulling out his spear, Bandana Dee prepared to fight.

* * *

The sound of a door opening was extremely loud to Dan, so he had to cover his ears to lessen the effect. The room in front of them was packed with several shelves of metal boxes, reminding him of the place he slept in the second night. With her free hand, Susie grabbed a black box laying on a shelf, making sure he didn’t fall. Walking to the back of the room, a few commands were entered onto a panel next to a locked door, opening it up. Inside, a few test tubes were taken from the shelves and she left. Passing by all of the workstations, she walked back into the hall.

Returning to the area they had been in earlier, she entered the door on the right side of the room, revealing a large desk at the far end. Placing her hand on top of it, Dan was too distracted to realize he was supposed to get off. After getting slid forward just the slightest by her other hand, he climbed down and watched her exit the room. Before being able to take a look around, the door opened again and she approached the desk. Placing her belongings down a good distance from him, she sat down on the chair just in front of it.

The two looked at each other for a moment before Susie raised her hand and tried gently patting Dan’s head, but their size comparison caused him to fall over. Picking himself back up, he saw her open the black box and take out several miniature pieces of furniture suited to his size. Placing them down near him, she watched what his next move would be. When he stood idly, looking back at her, a hand reached towards him and grabbed him a little too tightly for comfort, not giving him time to react. Lifting him up, he was snuggled against her face, giving him a deep blush. Getting placed down again, she got up and walked out of the room, leaving Dan now wondering what just happened.

* * *

The Combo Cannon tried one firing one last shot before shutting down, preparing for an explosion. Seconds later, it blew up, once again missing everyone with its shrapnel. With a sigh of relief, the group walked outside, only to almost bump directly into Susie, who happened to be walking by.

“Hey! Watch where you’re-” Bandana Dee started, cutting himself off as he saw who it was. “You again!”

“Greetings, everyone. I am deeply sorry, but I don’t have time for conversation, so I must be going now,” she said, walking off.

“Now hold it right there,” he said, blocking her path. “What did you do with our friend?”

“Are you referring to subject D4? I can assure you, he is in good hands, now please, stand down, I-”

“Not until you tell us where he is,” Bandana Dee demanded, pulling out his spear.

After a short pause, she calmly replied, “I have nothing more to say besides that he is safe. Good day.” She hastily sped by him, but he didn’t try to catch up. Looking at the others, they both gave off the best impression of a shrug they could. An idea popped into his head suddenly, so he started down the way she went, motioning for the others to follow.

* * *

The group stopped just behind a corner, watching as Susie traveled down a carpeted path. Noticing another branching walkway they could hide behind further up, Bandana Dee motioned for them to go, noticing that Gooey had disappeared. After a frantic search, he spotted him at the branching path, dropping Dan’s backpack and moving out of his sight. Bandana Dee dashed as fast as he could towards it, taking the long way so he wouldn’t get spotted, but by the time he reached it, it was gone. Looking forwards, Susie held the backpack and walked through a locked door ahead. As the door closed, he called the others to return to their rest area.

* * *

The door opened and Dan immediately noticed his super-sized backpack set down on the ground. Susie exited the room for a short while, and returned holding a strange blaster, then aimed it towards the pack. He watched in shock as the trigger was pulled, but it only shrank it down to his size. It was placed on the table beside him, and he opened it up immediately to see if everything was there. A short search relieved his worries, so he carried it towards the micro couch nearby. Just before reaching it, he tripped and fell over, sending his hat and pack forwards just past him, and giving out a giggle from above him. Looking up, he saw her hand cupped over where her mouth would be, a gleeful expression on her face. Giving off a short smile himself, he sat down and started taking out his tablet, only to be interrupted by a grab, and got taken outside. 

Dan was taken to a private laboratory and set down on one of the tables. Nearby, a ray gun similar to the one he had just seen and a few tools rested. A small capsule not much larger than himself connected to a generator was perched at the end of the counter. At the end of the room, a capsule about his size at normal connected to a tube ending just above the smaller one. The device was slid near him by Susie’s hand, who then picked up a few tools and started tinkering with it. As Dan approached, he was lightly pushed back as the work continued, likely so he wouldn’t get hurt. Deciding to do something while he waited, he took out his tablet and started toying around with it.

Before he knew it, a hand was placed before him, signaling for him to get on. Putting away his tablet and closing the pockets on his backpack, he climbed on top and they traveled back to the desk. Instead of being placed on the table, however, the black box was packed up once more and taken to the other room, where he was placed on the nightstand. A small bed was taken out and placed down, then a blanket and pillow to go along with it. Approaching it and setting it up, he was given another pat, this time gentle enough for him to keep his balance. Taking out his tablet once more, he laid down in the bed and covered himself under the blanket. Just as he set his head down, the lights turned off, leaving only two large, blue eyes to brighten the room. Laying down herself, Susie looked at Dan once more, then closed her eyes. Sitting there for a moment, he eventually decided he should get some rest as well and went to sleep.

* * *

_6 days since arrival_

_Susie’s bedroom(?)_

_I don’t know if today has been a good day or a bad day, but it's certainly been a big one._

_Starting off my day, I found myself getting carried by one of those gunners down the hall, how fun. I managed to get Gooey to eat one of them and drop me, and from what I can piece together, I then got shrunk down to the size of a bug. Gooey walked off with my backpack, leaving me all alone, defenseless on the ground. After I narrowly managed to avoid getting squashed by other guards passing by, Susie passed by, and I managed to cling onto her. I got off when she stopped in some sort of lab, and I then climbed up a conveniently designed table to try and get her attention. At that point, she started leaving, and I almost got left behind, but luckily her hair was long enough for me to grab onto. A long walk later and I was taken to the ground in her bedroom(?) where I got a good look around the area from a metal box. Just as I reached the ground, she finally spotted me. Lucky for me, I didn’t get crushed or anything, and instead she held out her hand for me to climb onto and took me to a storage room._

_After returning, she set me down on a desk, then took out some furniture conveniently tailored to my size from a dark box. I wasn’t able to do much before she picked me up and embraced me in the best sort of hug she could do at this size, I guess, which has to be one of the biggest experiences of my life. Anyways, I managed to get a giggle from her after I tripped and fell on my face, and she then took me to a lab. Inside, she worked with a small holding device around my size while I just messed around with this tablet. When she finished, she took me to the nightstand, right next to her bed, where I’m resting now. I received a bed, pillow, and blanket to use tonight, which was nice, seeing as it wouldn’t be fun sleeping on the surface of this thing. Events of the day outta the way, time to get to something else, kay?_

_As I’ve gone through the day, I’ve been wondering one big question. Why has Susie been so nice to me? I mean, she was just doing... something with me the past days, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t something positive. I’m not complaining, because if she wasn’t, then I wouldn’t fare too well, especially since I’m at this size. And also, what are the others doing? They have to have noticed that I’m gone by this point, and I’m also sure they’re looking for me, but will they reach me? Being this size wouldn’t help, but I’m sure I’ll make it out of this mess soon enough. A somewhat unrelated thought, how did my backpack make it back to me? Last I saw, Gooey was taking it with him down the hall, who knows where. And one final thing, I’m realizing... I just like her, so, so much._

* * *

Dan was awoken by a distant buzzing sound. Looking around, the bed in front of him was now empty, and something was flying erratically around the room. While he tried to get a closer look at what it was, it quickly started approaching him, which he didn’t realize. By the time he noticed, he was barely able to get enough time to scream and pull the covers over him before it reached his bed, perching itself on the frame. Staying as silent as he could, he felt the figure tapping his body, then placed one of its limbs on top of him. It took all his effort not to make his crying audible to it, and he struggled not to flinch when it rested its other legs on him.

After what felt like several minutes, the door finally opened, and shortly after the figure on top of him scattered. He peeked out from under the cover to see Susie standing over him, having just scared off the bug that landed on him. She pulled the covers off of him and picked him up, just soft enough for him this time, pulling him close. Looking back at her, Dan could see his own reflection in her eyes, tears still rolling down his cheeks. Rubbing his head gently, she then set him back down on the bed, pulling the sheets over him. Walking back to her own bed, she laid down and went to sleep once more.


	20. Together once more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the gang comes back together again

Since he hadn’t taken off his jacket when going to bed, Dan was exceedingly hot and fairly thirsty when he woke up. Getting up and taking off his jacket, he sat down on the bed, waiting for Susie to wake up so he could hopefully get something to drink. Not a few minutes later and he already decided that waiting like this didn’t appeal to him, so he took out his tablet.

By the time she finally woke up, Dan’s throat was sucked dry and he was barely able to muster up enough saliva to swallow. Waving up to her, she simply gave him a playful poke and walked to the room next door. After a few minutes, she returned, dressed in a clean outfit, and picked up his backpack just as he was about to put away his tablet. With a short giggle, she set it back down and motioned for him to climb onto her hand.

They arrived back in the private lab, where she immediately started work on the small device again. He tried walking over to get her attention, but was simply nudged back a little. After a few more attempts, she finally set down her work and turned her focus. While trying to figure out how to communicate at his size, she picked him up and delicately caressed him a few times, then set him back down and returned to her project. Taking off his backpack to pass the time once more, he started feeling hungry and hoped that he could get some food soon.

Finishing her work for the day, Susie picked up Dan and took him to the large desk, where he fell to his hands and knees after getting placed down, panting heavily. Not noticing this, she set some objects around on the desk and decided to have some fun with him. When she looked back, he had mostly regained his posture, but still had some difficulty holding up his pack. Setting it down weakly, he prepared for the following events, which he hoped didn’t involve exercise.

At long last, the time finally came, and she held out her hand to take them back to the bedroom. Setting Dan down, he stumbled to the bed, dropped his backpack next to it, and collapsed onto its side. She gave off a short gasp, then picked him up and hurriedly started towards her lab.

* * *

Several doors could be heard in quick succession, causing Bandana Dee to get back behind cover in case Susie suddenly burst out. Nothing happened for a few seconds, so he went back up to the wall to listen in on what was happening. Kirby and Gooey followed, placing themselves just next to him, and they stayed as silent as possible. Sounds of whirring and machines activating came to them, leaving them without any more information than they just had. A faint clicking sound, similar to that of pressing an input on one of several pieces of technology scattered around, then several pieces of metal clanging against each other came next, unmistakably someone frantically searching around for something. A long break occurred just afterwards, making Kirby and Gooey give each other a look and walk off. Just as Bandana Dee was about to leave, he heard a muffled voice behind the wall. The low volume meant he wasn’t able to make out everything said.

“Please... out...” he heard the voice, undoubtedly Susie’s.

A few more clicks, then a door opened. Running off, he signaled for the others to stay quiet and take cover. The front door opened up to reveal her walking out, looking a little down. Gooey was about to run out after her, and Kirby was giving him a look showing that he would be following, but Bandana Dee motioned for them to stay put. As she passed, they all returned to the wall to see if anything else was happening, but nothing was heard.

* * *

_ Target identified: Subject D4N3 _

_ Last status report: Less than 1 minute ago _

_ Elapsed time: 00:00:03:27 _

_ Estimated time remaining: Calculating... _

_ Overall rating: Incapable _

_ Notes: Subject admitted for moderate to severe case of dehydration and famine. Expected to recover within short periods. Subject will be supplied with nutrition via reactive liquids. Current body size not proportionate to natural state, and may result in low chances of lethargy upon full recovery. _

* * *

Opening his eyes, Dan was placed on top of a large table, and a test tube containing a blue, bubbly liquid lay just in front of him. He was currently laying face first on the ground, so he picked himself up and looked at the rest of his surroundings. Struggling somewhat to keep his eyes open, he noticed the large holding contained he had seen from past experiences in the lab, as well as several other tables scattered around the room. Before being able to see anything else, a hand appeared seemingly out of nowhere, grabbing him tightly moving him close. Susie eventually loosened her grip, making Dan gasp for breath. After the embrace was finished, he was carried towards the small device she had been working on over the past day and placed him inside of it. Just after, the tube connecting it to the large one was attached, and she pressed a button nearby. Several bright lights emerged, causing him to shield his eyes from them, and he got knocked off his feet onto the ground as a blast of smoke appeared.

* * *

Dan coughed as the smoke dispersed, then picked himself up and stumbled out through the hatch that had opened up. After only a few steps, he tripped and fell onto the ground, dropping his hat in the process. Getting back up using one of the tables, he attempted to support himself as best he could. He wasn’t able to see much of anything in the room as the machine he had been in made him incredibly dizzy. Careful not to fall, he walked towards a wall he saw and sat down next to it, holding a hand to his head.

“Hehe, it worked!” came a familiar voice.

He looked up to see a regular sized Susie standing just in front of him, looking him over.

“Wha...” he started, getting interrupted by a wave of pain sweeping through his head.

“I would advise you receive some rest. This machine may have unintended side effects, but certainly nothing major.”

She held out her hand, and he grabbed it to help himself up. He was guided out the door, ever so slowly, and into a large, red carpeted room. A pillow was placed on the ground and he sat himself down on it as she left the room once more. By now, the whole world around him wasn’t a mess of colors spinning around and he was able to make out the night stand he had stayed on last night. The door opened and Susie returned, now holding a small pill.

“Take this,” she said, handing it to him. “It will heavily speed up the process of your recovery.”

He swallowed the pill, and just as she said, he instantly started feeling himself getting better. Within seconds, the only thing he still felt was a small headache and weak limbs. He was about to ask her a question, but she must have known what he was thinking and quietly shushed him.

“I know you have several questions, and I’m deeply sorry, but I have other matters to attend to at the moment. Please forgive me.” She walked out the door and into the hall, leaving Dan some time to rest.

The sound of Dan’s voice startled the group, enough so that they didn’t hear a door opening. Susie then walked out the front door, blowing their cover.

“That didn’t end well,” Bandana Dee muttered to himself. “Hey! We know you have our buddy in there! Give him back!”

Susie calmly looked at him. “D4 is currently resting. He has undergone several procedures within the hour, and he is not in the state to be traveling as of now.”

“Then give him over and let him rest with us! He’d be in much better hands then than you’d ever be.” He pulled out his spear as Kirby gained a determined look and Gooey wandered off.

“I’m afraid I cannot do that. Now, if you will excuse me, I have important affairs to address,” she said, walking down the carpeted path. “I will be seeing you.”

“Y’know,” he started after seeing her disappear around a corner, “I don’t think we’ll be able to get much done over here.” They heard Dan give off a groan, and reluctantly, they returned to their rest area.

* * *

“Hello, again.” Susie entered the door and approached him. He was feeling mostly normal now, except for being somewhat weak, as if he just got up after a nap, but wide awake. “I apologize for taking such a long time, but I am now prepared, so please, ask me anything on your mind.”

Dan thought of the best thing to ask first. “First of all... why have you been so nice to me? Just a few days ago, you had me put in a jail cell along with the others.”

She was taken back a little by the question “Well...” She trailed off. “You see... I...” A quiver in her voice signaled that she could lose her composure at any second.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I...”

“No, it’s fine. I never told you.”

“Okay, uhh... you know if there’s a way home for me?”

“I beg your pardon?” She looked confused.

“Oh, I guess you need some context. I arrived in this world around a week or so ago, and I’ve been stuck here since. I know for certain that this place isn’t my home, and I haven’t figured out how I’m supposed to get there.”

“Hmm.” She gave it some thought. “Perhaps we could use the power of Star Dream to warp you back. It has the possibility of being unsuccessful, however, so it would be advised to get there through other means.”

“What other means are there?” he wondered.

“That, I am unsure of. The process of discovering could take a high or low extreme of time, depending on several circumstances.”

“Okay...” He started at the floor for a bit. “If it isn’t too much of a hassle, could I get my backpack?”

“Of course.” She left for a couple of minutes, then returned with it in hand.

“Thanks.” A short pause. “Now that I think about it, I should get back to my group. They’re probably worried about me.”

She helped him up and led him to the door.

“Well, uh, thanks for everything,” he said.

“You are welcome.” She walked up and playfully patted his head. “Feel free to return at any time. Perhaps, even, we could have some... ‘fun’ with the shrink ray again.”

“Uh, okay. See you ‘round,” he said, exiting the door.

* * *

Just after rounding a corner, Dan realised he had no idea where the rest of his group was. Looking around, he tried to head towards the Dubior storage off of memory, but everything looked so similar to him that he wound up getting lost. Much wandering later, and he eventually found a familiar looking door, or so he thought, and decided to enter it. As he approached it, however, he noticed a blue bandana disappear behind a corner. Quickly walking towards it, he didn’t spot Gooey just past it, and they bumped into each other, sending them both to the ground.

“Ouch,” he grunted emotionlessly. Hearing this, the other two turned around to see him standing there, and they both ran up for a hug.

“Dan!” Bandana Dee called as Gooey wrapped all of them with his tongue. “Where have you been?”

“Thanks, but can we get to the rest area first?” Dan asked.

“Oh, sure.”

When they got there, Dan set himself on the ground, placing his backpack next to him. Bandana Dee walked up to him and sat beside him.

“So what happened in there?” Bandana Dee said after a while.

Dan remembered back on what he did. “I’d... rather not say.”

“Oh, okay.”

They sat in silence for a while until Gooey walked up and gave both of them a good lick. Dan sighed and watched as Bandana Dee chased after him.

* * *

The group had exhausted themselves by playing and running around, and they all agreed upon getting some rest.

“Same plan tomorrow?” Dan asked Bandana Dee.

“You mean back to the office? Yeah, that’s what I suspect,” he replied. “Hopefully, this time, we can all make it out together.”

Dan took his pillow out of his backpack, which immediately got snatched away by Gooey’s long tongue. He sighed and walked over to the same corner from his previous stay in the room, where Bandana Dee waited. Everyone taking their positions, they all closed their eyes, except for Dan, staying up just a little later on his tablet.

* * *

_ 7 days since arrival (one week, woooo) _

_ Dubior storage _

_ The main thing that’s happened since yesterday is that our party is finally back together, me at normal size, thankfully. _

_ I woke up this morning on the nightstand, feeling real thirsty because I forgot to take off my jacket for the night. I was hoping that Susie would be able to get me something when she woke up, but I soon realised that I wasn’t able to communicate with her all that well. After she got up, she took me back to the lab where she continued on her work. When that was finished, we went to the large desk, where she toyed around with me for a bit. At that point, I was starting to get hungry as well, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could go on for. Eventually, she returned me to the nightstand, where I’m pretty sure I passed out, but I’m not exactly certain. _

_ The next thing I knew, I was laying on a table, just in front of a machine that I’m assuming revived me, when Susie picked me up and set me in the device she had been working on. Lots of bright lights and smoke later, and I stumbled out of the larger version of it, finally back at normal size. She helped me over to the bedroom, where she gave me a pill that helped with the side effects that came from the process a whole lot. She apparently had some “other matters” to address, so I waited there for a while until she returned. I then was able to ask a few questions, most importantly if there was a way back home for me, and there is, but it isn’t pretty, at least from what I’ve heard. Star Dream has the power to get me back, but may have unintended side effects, and I don’t want to take my chances. Alternatively, there are other unknown ways, which of course require the necessary research to find out. The time taken for that may be really short or really long, and I’m hoping it’s the former. _

_ Questions complete, I headed out, getting permission to return if I wanted to, and wandered around for the others. Luckily, I stumbled upon them in one of the halls and they took me back to this rest area. We all decided to have some fun and joke around until we started getting tired, so we got everything ready and went to bed. Except me, of course, but I’ll get to it as soon as this is done. _

_ Other things I’ve been thinking about now, when I asked Susie why she’s been so kind to me recently, she started getting a little trembly in her voice, so I decided not to push her any further. I can only wonder what that means, though. Also, now that she’s some sort of a ‘hidden ally’ to me, what’s going to happen in the office tomorrow? Will she still provoke the rest of the party? I’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. _

_ ~Dan _

* * *

An hour or so had passed, and Dan was still waiting for sleep to arrive. Eventually, he decided that he should do something about it. He got up, plucked Gooey off of Kirby’s head seeing as he wouldn’t exactly care a whole lot, and walked outside. When he woke up, he eyed him strangely.

“Can you lead me to that place you kept spying at?” he whispered. Gooey nodded and started walking.

When they got there, Dan thanked Gooey for the help and dismissed him. He approached the door, then realised he had no idea on how to get inside. Without any other ideas, he lifted his hand up to knock, but it opened just as he did so, revealing Susie standing in the doorway.

“Come in,” she said.

He walked in, and she pressed a few buttons next to the door.

“What is it that you need?” she asked.

He scratched his head, adjusted his cap, and looked slightly towards the floor. “Well, I couldn’t sleep, and I was wondering if I could... y’know...”

“Of course,” She said, already knowing what he was asking. She walked to the lab, then returned carrying the blaster that he had seen during his stays in there. “Come with me,” she said, entering the bedroom.

As he entered, he felt a ray strike him, but this time he was only hindered by a puff of smoke. Coughing and waving it away, he saw that he had returned to a miniscule size. A hand was placed in front of him, and he climbed on. Instead of getting out the tiny bed for him to use, however, Susie walked over to her own bed, still holding onto him, and laid down.

“Good night,” she whispered.

He closed his eyes as her hands softly surrounded him, providing him with warmth for the night, this time able to fall asleep nicely.


	21. Say goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> my man dan gets outta here

Dan woke up on the cold, hard floor that he remembered trying to sleep on. He looked around to see his party napping around the room, none of them up yet. Getting up, he pulled out his tablet, waiting for someone else to wake up.

The group got up as he was distracted by the screen. Gooey got up first, and by licking the other two they opened their eyes as well. The three approached Dan, who was still looking down at his tablet when they reached him, startling him.

“Didn’t see you guys wake up there.” Dan eyed Gooey with a certain look referring to the previous night. “A little more rest, I assume?”

When they were all ready, they packed everything up and prepared to leave for the day.

“So I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Bandana Dee started as they walked down one of seemingly infinite halls, “what exactly does pizza taste like? I’ve seen it before, but I’ve never gotten the chance to try it.”

“Eating it is the fun part, but...” Dan thought to himself. “It’s kind of difficult to explain. Let’s just say that... it tastes exactly as it looks like. Cheese, sauce, bread, any toppings, picture that all together and that’s about it.”

“Okay.”

* * *

“...and it also comes in a whole bunch of different types, so there’s one flavor for every type of person. It’s also got this sm-”

“Okay, I think that’s enough cheese talk for today.” Bandana Dee walked up to the portal room. “Look, we’re just about at the office already. Now let’s go.”

Kirby once again grabbed the Poison ability as they ran by, and they traveled up the elevator.

“What’s the plan this time around?” Dan asked.

“Same thing. You hide with Gooey, the two of us,” he motioned towards Kirby, “go on and fight.”

“I’m just hoping that everything goes correctly this time. This is our third attempt at this, and I don’t want to go on on a fourth.”

Bandana Dee took a step towards him. “That pink-haired girl, what’s her name, let’s hope she doesn’t play things dirty again by kidnapping you or something.”

Dan gave off a short chuckle. “Yeah...”

At the top, they gathered for a cheer, and started towards the door, but Dan called out to them before they reached it.

“Uh, you guys wouldn’t mind another picture would you?” He thought about returning home soon, hoping the proper research was complete. “I... haven’t gotten one since Gooey joined us.” The aforementioned blob perked up upon hearing his name.

“Sure thing!” Bandana Dee walked over to him and motioned for the others to follow.

“Say... cheese!” Dan held in a laugh.

“Oh come on! No more cheese! Not right now!” Bandana Dee teasingly shouted at him. At that point, Dan couldn’t hold it in any longer and broke out laughing. Bandana Dee himself shortly followed and they were gasping for breath in between laughs. Kirby smiled at them while Gooey stared off into space.

“Okay,” Dan said, taking deep breaths, “I think we’re ready to go now.”

Walking in, Dan was more focused on what had just happened rather than what would happen.  _ I’ve never seen this side of him before _ , he thought.

Dan took shelter behind the pot immediately after entering, taking Gooey with him. This time, he wasn’t as concerned about staying hidden as the previous times, so he let his head bob out from above behind the plant. Susie was once again standing there, holding a remote and talking to Kirby and Bandana Dee. At one point in her speech, she briefly made eye contact with Dan. She shortly returned her focus as to not alert his group that she knew he was hiding there. She pressed a button on her remote, but he wasn’t able to see the effects as Gooey decided to bounce on his head, blocking his vision. Eventually, he started suffocating Dan, who was now trying to pull him off, but Gooey was latched onto him tightly and wouldn’t budge. Dan started wobbling his head, then dropped his hands and collapsed onto the floor, Gooey bouncing off and giving him a lick.

* * *

“Are you well?”

Dan quickly opened his eyes and looked around weakly. The entire room was deserted.

“Wha... who’s there.” He said this more as a sentence than a question.

“Oh, you don’t remember me?”

The owner of the voice showed herself, long, pink hair being the first thing he spotted.

“Wait, no... I remember you.” He tried pulling himself up, but fell back down in doing so.

“Please, come with me.” Susie held out her hand. “I have important information that concerns you, and here is not the ideal place to explain.”

He took her hand and got up, then immediately fell back down. Holding her hand out once more, she supported him and slowly guided him to the door.

“So... where are we going? And what happened?”

“You seem to have been deoxygenated by the goo-like substance of your group. You passed out for a while, then got up shortly after I arrived in front of you.”

He had a few more questions, but he couldn’t quite think straight and decided to hold off on them. By the time the two of them made their way back into the hall, Dan could very well keep himself up, but didn’t let go of Susie’s hand as they made their way to her quarters. When they made it there, she opened the door and led him inside and onto the pillow he had been on the day before. He opened his mouth to start asking questions, then stopped, in case she had something to say. She motioned for him to go on, so he continued.

“Where did everyone else go?”

“They all joined your friend Pinky in flying off on a large vessel that appeared just outside of the office’s window. He was able to harness its power using one of the mechs.”

“But... where were they going?”

“I...” She remembered activating Star Dream and sending it off into space. “...don’t know.”

They waited in silence for a minute until he said, “I... don’t have any other questions. You said something about news for me, or something, didn’t you?”

“I did. There is in fact a way for you home.” Dan looked at her hopefully. “However, it may not be easy.”

“What? Why?”

“Allow me to explain. A portal can be created to leave this dimension, but it’s destination is uncertain. It will lead to a different dimension, possibly your own, but that is unlikely. In this world, you will need to find a certain battery for a device to create a portal out into another one. By continuing through this cycle, you will eventually make it back to your own universe.”

“Okay, so, when will this device or whatever be ready for usage?” he questioned.

“Actually, it is ready now. That is why I called you here for this information.”

“So... I could leave this place... right now, if I wanted to?”

“Precisely.”

Dan looked towards the floor. “I didn’t even get to say my goodbyes...”

She remembered his flushed cheeks from their walk through the hall. “Well, perhaps, we could... go one more round with the shrink ray before your departure, if you wish.”

He looked up, surprised that she had been the one who suggested it. “O-okay.”

* * *

Dan coughed and waved the smoke away from his face as he staggered out of the size restoration machine, clinging onto a table before he fell over. With some help, he made his way to the wall and sat down. Susie came up to him holding yet another blaster.

“This here is the device that will allow you to start the process of returning home. Now, I must explain how to use it as you will need to know yourself.”

“I have a question. Could I, say, return to this world if I wanted?” he said after a short set of instructions.

“Yes. I can set one of the preset frequencies to lead here. Give me a minute.” After tinkering with it for exactly a minute on a table, she returned to him.

“So... is this goodbye?” he asked.

“It seems that way, yes. But always remember, you can use this device here to return at any time.”

She handed him the device. “Oh, one more thing. Could I... get a picture with you?” After thinking that it may sound weird to her, he quickly added, “Y’know, so I can remember the time I spent here.”

“Of course.”

Taking out his tablet, he aimed the camera and stared at it blankly, Susie giving off an unexpressive wave in the background. A second later, he decided to give a smile and took the picture. He put it away and took out the device so he could leave.

“Uhh, is there a name for this thing?” he asked, holding it in front of her. “I don’t want to be remembering it as the portal-creating-device... thingy-whatever-you-call-it.”

“The official name of this is the DCF-M117, but that wouldn’t be a very efficient way to refer to it. You may call it the... PCDTWYCI, if you wish, standing for portal-creating-device-thin-”

“How about just the PCD? It sounds like a simple enough name for me to memorize.” He took it back. Remembering the directions he received, he set it up and created a portal in an empty part of the room, then put it in one of his backpack’s pockets.

“So, uh, thanks for all the help you’ve given me in my time here. I really appreciate it.” He started towards the portal, then stopped just before it. “And now, a final goodbye.” He was about to wave off and jump in, but she approached him once more and gave him a hug.

When she released him, he was struggling to control himself. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed you blushing around me all of the time.” She giggled to herself.

“I... I...”

“I will be seeing you again.”

“Y-yeah, see you s-some other time.” He waved to her, and reluctantly, took a running start and tripped just as he was about to jump in, remembering something important. Picking himself up, he turned towards Susie.

“H-hey, uh, how am I supposed to find these battery things for the PCD again?”

“Oh! Thank you for reminding me. I need to add an update to your tablet to allow it to detect them.” He handed it to her and she connected it to a screen at one of the ends of the room. When she was finished, she returned to him and handed it back. “I have added a new application onto here which searches for any nearby. Simply open it up and wait for the startup, then it will show the location of it, as well as a map of the surrounding area you’ve traversed.”

“O-okay, now the real final goodbye.” He walked up just below it and prepared for a jump. “Bye,” he called out to her waving.

“Safe travels, and the best of luck in your journey.” She gave off her own soft wave, and after a moment’s hesitation, he started the motion of jumping into it, but cut himself off before completing it.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” he said, tears forming in his eyes.

“Of course you can,” she said, approaching him. “Think of being able to go home, or... returning here, if you wish. You will make it home eventually, this is simply the first step in doing so.” She gave him a soft pat on the back.

“You know what? Yeah. I’m not gonna get anything done by just standing here. I’m getting through this portal and getting home, no matter what.” He put himself back together and prepared to leave.

“For real this time. Bye.”

“Good luck.” She returned a wave and watched him hesitantly jump into the portal.

“Please stay safe,” she whispered after seeing him leave.


End file.
